Design is one of the most fundamental aspects of how we perceive and view things in the real world. So it comes as no surprise that it takes years of R&D by a team of experts to fine-tune a product that can cater to current market demands. Now these very same principles also apply to automotive design, an exciting field that can be incredibly rewarding in terms of career prospects, provided you hit the ground running early on that is.
This is where a contest like Drive For Design comes in. Sponsored by the Stellantis North America Product Design Team, this is a competition for U.S. high school students grades 10-12, where they get to showcase their design skills and stand a chance to win some amazing prizes as well.
To find out more, I recently had the chance to speak with one of the jury members of the competition, Mark Trostle, vice president, of Ram Truck and Mopar Design. Now Mark himself has been a winner of an early iteration of the contest back in the late 80s. He gave me some insights on how the contest was instrumental in steering his own career path and also, what they’re looking for from participants this year.
The Theme For 2023
As a high schooler in 1987, a young Mark first heard about the contest from his art teacher. Held at the Detroit Autorama, Mark took part in the contest and won it and there was no looking back. He received a $1,000 scholarship from the Creative School Of Studies (CCS). While the contest went away about four years later, it was revived back in 2012, once again at the Detroit Autorama.
Now in its 11th consecutive year, the annual contest has always been centered around a unique theme and for 2023, it's imagining the ‘Future Of A Ram Truck’. The American automaker’s future lineup will be made up of a slew of EVs. The RAM 1500 Revolution BEV concept which we first saw at CES earlier this year and the subsequent production version that we saw at the recent New York International Auto Show, gives us an idea of what to expect from the Ram brand, moving forward.
What we look for in this competition and I can’t stress this enough, is I don’t want them to just emulate what we showed. I want them to say, if this is where RAM is heading, what’s beyond that? I want to see their creativity. It's the naivety that they have, that brings things that are new and fresh. It's the emotion that a student puts into a sketch, that lets us see that they’re on the right path - Mark Trostle, VP, Ram Truck and Mopar Design
With that, here are the requirements in order to participate:
You must be a legal U.S. resident attending a U.S. high school between grades 10-12. Your submission will be judged on the following criteria with each carrying a weight of 25 percent.
- Craftsmanship
- Design Quality
- Illustration
- Originality
The participant with the highest overall score will be deemed the winner. You can send in your final submission by this Friday, April 21, 2023, at 11:59 P.M. Eastern. Find more details here.
What Do Prize Winners Get
Some of the previous contest winners
The first prize winner will get an opportunity for a summer design internship with the Ram Design studio and a Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16. Second and third-prize winners will be awarded a scholarship to the College for Creative for a three-week Precollege Summer Experience in “Transportation Design”. In addition, runner-ups will get a Virtual Day Of Design: comprising a one-to-one portfolio review by one of the members of the Stellantis Design Team along with an Apple iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
The winning sketch as well as the runner ups will be featured on Stellantis' social media platforms. Local winners will be invited to participate as student judges at the EyesOn Design at Ford House car show in Grosse Pointe, on Father’s Day later this year.
The Landscape Of Automotive Design Today And Tomorrow
Beyond the contest itself, I also took the opportunity to discuss the landscape of automotive design and how it has changed in this digital age. Electrification of course brings with it new opportunities as well as challenges, so I wanted to get Mark’s take on what it means for the future of automotive design and the next generation of RAM Trucks. How will designers have to adapt to these new trends?
Looking at the competitor set, as RAM Trucks, we never want to follow them. We want to stay true to who we are, but given the new opportunities in new drivetrains and technology, how can we keep the soul of what the RAM truck has always been known for, as it is something that does help us connect well with our customers. So how do we take that and do a future version? This is also something that makes a strong design brand as well.
When asked about when will automakers be more adventurous in bringing some features that we see on concept models onto production vehicles Mark noted that they’ve always tried to push the envelope of engineering with several internal concepts which the public never got to see. These concepts sure go a long way in inspiring their final designs.
An Unconventional Way Of Finding New Talent
There aren’t many automakers that have something quite like Stellantis’ Drive For Design contest, a competition that fosters new talent and helps the next generation realize their true potential early on.
A lot of the folks that have won our contest and have even interned here, I know are working with some of our competitors as design professionals. So it's kind of nice that we as Stellantis and myself have been able to influence the field of automotive design. I really wanted to connect with people that were like me and had the artistic and creative minds.
Mark concluded by stating that while engineering is super important for building a vehicle, people buy things based on the way they look. At the end of the day, this contest’s main purpose is about exposing young people in high school to the field of automotive design, and with Stellantis’ various brands, he’d be more than excited to someday see a contest like this having a global reach.