Jaguar Sponsored Design Program Results In Stand Out Projects
08 September 2015
This summer, the Jaguar Design team launched a design challenge at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. and at Academy of Art in San Francisco, Calif, to tap into the incredible talent of each school’s future designers. After two months of hard work and stiff competition, Jaguar has chosen the projects that best captured the spirit of the design brief; to create the vision for an iconic sports car for the year 2030.
Ian Callum and his design team, consisting of Julian Thomson, Adam Hatton, Matthew Beaven, Alister Whelan and Sandy Boyes, traveled to each school for various check‑points throughout the summer term to provide necessary feedback for every student’s concept proposals. Students had the opportunity to choose between tackling an exterior design or interior design project based on the brief. Academy of Art had an added challenge, for those that chose to accept it, to create a unique user interface or technology function.
“The work produced by the students at both colleges is of the caliber that our own designers submit in our studios,” said Julian Thomson, Director of Advanced Design, Jaguar.
Art Center, known for decades as a world class transportation design college, provided five exterior design concepts and nine interior design concepts. Academy of Art University (AAU), who’s transportation design department was started in 1992, has rapidly become a hot bed of new talent for interior design and user interface concepts. Hyun Jun (Richard) Yoh and Eirik Stensrud from Art Center and Jack Liu from AAU were each the recipients of a scholarship, given by Jaguar, for presenting concepts that best represented the nature of the design brief set forward by Callum and his team.
Richard Yoh’s exterior design concept brought the spirit of performance driving into a package for the utility‑conscious driver. His project, aptly named ‘F‑SPACE,’ is a 3‑door sport‑brake concept with mature form language details, dramatic wheel arches and taught speed lines emanating from the grill toward the rear tail lamps. Richard’s concept was built around the premise that when autonomous vehicles become the norm, the need for adventure and sport handling vehicles will rise as recreation becomes the weekend warrior vehicle of choice. The F‑SPACE allows for low, aggressive handling achieved by pushing the tires to the absolute far corners of the chassis while also providing enough utility to either throw in a bicycle, a few suitcases or some track tires. The result: the perfect luxury sport‑brake that can accommodate an ideal weekend escape plan.
Eirik Stensrud took on the complicated and daunting task of envisioning the environment and experience of a sport’s car interior cabin space. Inspired by turning the digital experience into a more tactile analog experience, Eirik decided to use familiar interior materials and turn them into more than just aesthetically pleasing features. For example, the stitching on the center console is linked to the vehicle’s control screen. The screen is out of reach to the driver, so accessing certain functions requires pressing and scrolling the actual stitches in the console to send commands to the vehicle. Knobs are also within reach of the main function stitches for easier access to main functions. The steering wheel is a dual purpose steering wheel. The outer ring is utilized primarily for daily commuting. The two inner F1 style grips are a more direct approach to sport or track driving experiences. The driver engages sport mode, grabs hold of the grips and can perform instant up and down shifting via the two buttons on either grip.
Academy of Art student Jack Liu’s monoposto (single‑seat) recumbent control position driving experience, a project that can meet the needs of the most demanding enthusiast drivers, is optimized for a purely selfish driving experience. The recumbent seating position eliminates the traditional steering wheel and pedals assembly for hand controls on either side of the driver’s legs. The SMART Glass 360‑degree cockpit canopy offers a full panoramic field of view to immerse the driver in their surroundings. Perfect for those looking to escape to their favorite back country roads or local race track, the vehicle documents and uploads live‑action video captured from previous drives (thanks to cameras positioned above the canopy. When the vehicle is parked and simulation mode is engaged, it projects the recorded journeys on the SMART Glass, allowing the user to re‑experience that perfect drive or practice before their next track excursion.
“Working with both schools has been an eye opening experience. The talent that each school possesses is recognized all around the world and Jaguar feels it’s important to encourage young designers to envision vehicle solutions for the future. The entire team was very impressed by the projects presented and we look forward to sharing the results with the rest of our team back in our design studio,” said Ian Callum, Director of Design, Jaguar.