The
13th SIAM Styling and Design Conclave and 11th Automotive Design Challenge
organised by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) based on the
theme: ‘Shaping Tomorrow’s Mobility Business’ saw a myriad of renowned and
budding automotive designers, showcasing the future of automobile styling in
India.
Also,
in order to encourage the youth into automotive designing, SIAM provided them
with a platform through a competition, Automotive Design Challenge in the
latter half of the day. With the consumers
getting increasingly picky over style and design of automobiles, while choosing
their vehicle, the same is getting prioritised by the automobile industry. Thus
the conclave had senior designers from India and around the globe, sharing
their experiences, with case studies on iconic products, effective design
process and on role of design in building and sustaining brands.
Anil
Saini, Chairman, SIAM Styling & Design Group, said, “Over the past years we
have realised that visual features have a big role to play in brand image in
today’s date. In fact, style and design are the primary differentiators between
products and are generating real value in automobiles. In the recent past, in
bid to provide greater product varieties at competitive prices, car companies
adopted platform sharing strategies. However, with changing times our
strategies must evolve and as a part of this evolution, these platform sharing
strategies must be supported with sufficient differentiation between design and
styling of car models.”
With
international automotive designers like Dimitri Vicedomini, Design Project
Manager, Pininfarina, Italy, Thomas Dale, Director- Strate School of Design,
Mike Levy, Head of Mobility, Strate, Xavier De La Chapelle, Architect Electric
Autonomous, NAVYA, Mark W. Jarvis, Head of Creative Services, UNO Minda Group
gracing the occasion, the sessions talked about design identity, Mobility CMF
trends, India Design story, user comfort, Future design skill sets,
Electric/Autonomous Vehicle design and changing role of UI/UX, etc. The event
was attended by more than 100 delegates.
Prof
Gaurang Shah, Head, IDS Ahemadabad, an Automotive Design stalwart was awarded
for his contributions to the Automotive Styling & Design Industry. He was
instrumental in the development of Bajaj 'Tempo Trax'. He also designed Matador
& Tempo Traveler for the ambulance, cash van & luxury variants.
Adding
to the industry insights, Dimitri Vicedomini, Design Project Manager,
Pininfarina said, “The automobile and transportation sector is changing
continuously. In this process of evolution, the whole industry is shifting
towards visual experience from being a moving experience. With such
developments, it is becoming imperative for the automobile brands to focus on
two key areas viz. shared mobility and owned mobility, where shared mobility
focuses on the product and its technology, while owned mobility focuses on
aesthetics and brand value.”
Automotive
Design challenge’18 saw student entries from major design institutes across the
country. By organising this competition every year, SIAM Styling & Design
Group aims to create excitement and interest about the automobile styling in
India and support development of local styling professionals.
?”From
minimise we need to move to micronize. Multiple processes could be made in one
or two steps. Evolved tools could lead to a newer approach to design &
could help in faster product development cycles, said Thomas Dale of Strate
School of Design.
The
competition acts as a platform for showcasing talent, creating opportunities
and providing encouragement to the budding designers. The top three designs got
selected by the jury and got awarded in the evening. Neeraj Jawale from NID won
the ADC'18, followed by Samarjit Waghela again from NID as a first runner up
and Sidharth Rath from DYPDC as a second runner up. The audience consisted of
young designers, styling & design engineers, suppliers, students, design
practitioners, technical persons and management executives from the automotive
fraternity.
“As
one of the leading autonomous vehicle manufacturers in Europe, we have been
pleased to introduce new mobility service to India knowing that it could take
some time to bring this technology here. We are looking to create a partnership
with a few Indian companies to be able to manufacture autonomous vehicles in
India”, said Xavier De La Chapelle of Architect Electric Autonomous.