Young designer from Maharashtra wins ‘Camouflage with Skoda’ contest

Four days after announcing the Slavia sedan for India, Skoda Auto India today announced the winner of the Camouflage design contest. Shreyas Karambelkar from Badlapur, Maharashtra has been awarded the winner’s title by the jury.

Shreyas will travel to Prague to meet Skoda’s Head of Design, Oliver Stefani, at the company headquarters. In addition, the winning design will be applied on the testing prototype of the upcoming Slavia midsize premium sedan, under the India 2.0 project.

Ben Stewart from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu has been chosen as the runner-up and wins a design tablet. The other three finalists will be awarded Skoda gift bags. This design contest was announced in August wherein the participants were asked to submit a design of a camouflage for Skoda’s upcoming midsize premium sedan in India. More than 200 entries were received from across India. Before announcing the winner, the top five shortlisted designs were passed through the production, durability, and applicability processes.

While Shreyas’ winning design is a mixture of Indian motifs – the peacock and lotus, Czech glass art, and Cubism, the concept of Ben’s winning design is inspired by the simplicity of basic regular shapes, themed over the contrasting Skoda colour palette.

Zac Hollis, Brand Director, Skoda Auto India said, “We congratulate Shreyas Karambelkar for winning the ‘Camouflage with Skoda’ contest. His design reflected a homogenous blend of Indian and Czech art cultures. We want to congratulate the runners-up for putting up a healthy competition, and the designs submitted  kept the jury contemplating for a long time. We would also like to thank all the participants for coming forward and making the contest a success.”

The contest was judged by  Gurpratap Boparai, Managing Director - SAVWIPL, Zac Hollis, and Oliver Stefani, Head of Design, Skoda Auto. The evaluation process spanned various criteria, which were led by creative and technical expertise. Each design was judged for its innovation, aesthetics, functionality, ergonomics, impact, utility and the emotional quotient. The contest was open to any individual above 18 years of age and was extended to design studios, companies, universities, design students and design professionals.