SIAM hosts ninth Styling & Design Conclave in Pune

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) organised the ninth edition of Styling & Design Conclave and the seventh Automotive Design Challenge (ADC) in Pune on February 6. The theme for the conclave this year was ‘Innovation Through Design’ while the ADC saw design students compete on three imaginary topics based on which the participants had to create and submit their designs and clay models along with the presentations.

The first of three themes was what if Hyundai purchased a majority in Ferrari, and is now looking to build a special automobile as a homage to the legendary Enzo Ferrari. This idea invited budding designers to create a unique confluence of Hyundai and Ferrari’s design languages together.

While the second theme invited students to think on the lines of BMW designing a pick-up truck, the third one assumed if World War II had not ensued and with countries and companies continuing to evolve unaffected, how would Auto Union’s development course be and how would it look like today.

Divided into four sessions, the event also saw the core members evaluate the concepts presented by the participating students. The conclave along with ADC reinstated the requirement of nurturing automotive design talent in India, thereby creating a talent pool as the core organisers aim to consolidate the interface between the design institutes and the automotive industry.

The event this year saw the presence of Glynn Kerr, owner, Glynn Kerr Design; Toru Kimura, chief liaison officer, Kawasaki, Japan; Asok Abraham George, design director, Volvo Design and Innovation Center, Shanghai; Mark W Jarvis, design manager, design experience Asia, Visteon Corporation, along with a number of other dignitaries.

Rashmi Urdhwareshe, director, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), who was the guest of honour at the event, highlighted that need for innovative design in the areas associated with transportation and that the inspirations for such designs can be derived from any domain.

Kerr, who is a widely acknowledged British-born motorcycle designer with an experience of over three decades, talked about the journey of motorcycle design across the world, and also in the context of India in his keynote speech.

Later talking to Autocar Professional, Kerr said: “While Bajaj Auto has done a commendable job in the area of motorcycle design in India, all other companies, I believe, lack their respective corporate identities on their products. I have come to India after three years and I do not see any major change in the way bikes looked on the roads then and now. Most bikes here look the same and they lack character.”

The top honours of ADC for this year were given to Rajshekhar Dass of Mumbai, which was followed by Mathew Vinod and Mark Timothy respectively. All three students, who are from ISD Rubika, won the competition out of 10 shortlisted candidates. These 10 candidates had earlier presented their concepts to the audience and the jury.

Also marking its new initiative of recognising the contribution by senior design leaders for playing a significant role in advancing the state of automobile design in India, the organisers recognized Bidyabijay Bhaumik, the chief designer at Mahindra & Mahindra, with a trophy.