Giving a fillip to the Indian automotive industry the 13th SIAM Styling and Design Conclave and 11th Automotive Design challenge saw a lot of enthusiasm throughout the day at Hotel Marriott, Jaipur.

The day-long annual conclave and conclusion of Automotive Design Challenge (ADC) 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.

Alongside, 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. The apex body says 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. 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.

In his welcome address, Anil Saini, chairman, SIAM Styling and 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.”     

The event saw participation from 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 and Mark W Jarvis, Head of Creative Services, UNO Minda Group gracing the occasion.

The day long sessions discussed 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 along with interactions woven in between. The event saw participation from over 100 delegates.

Prof Gaurang Shah, Head, IDS Ahemadabad, an automotive design stalwart was awarded for his contributions to the automotive styling and design industry. He was instrumental in the development of Bajaj 'Tempo Trax'. He also designed Matador and Tempo Traveler for the ambulance, cash van and luxury variants.

Adding to the industry insights, Vicedomini 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 micronise. Multiple processes could be made in one or two steps. Evolved tools could lead to a newer approach to design and could help in faster product development cycles,” said Dale.

SIAM says 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 and 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 Chapelle.