
Note: The World Automotive Design Competition will be relaunched in the near future. Stay tuned for complete details.
A design panel consisting of seven highly respected world design experts first review each candidate for the World Car Design of the Year award. They then establish a short-list of recommendations for the jurors.
The design experts are:
Ian Callum (United Kingdom – Director of Design, CALLUM)
Gert Hildebrand (Germany – Owner Hildebrand-Design)
Patrick le Quément (France - Designer and President of the Strategy Committee - The Sustainable Design School)
Tom Matano (USA – Academy of Art University, Former Head of Design – Mazda)
Victor Nacif (USA - Chief Creative Officer, Brojure.com and Design instructor, New School of Architecture and Design)
Shiro Nakamura (Japan - CEO, Shiro Nakamura Design Associates Inc.)
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Ian Callum CBE RDI Director of Design, CALLUM |
Ian Callum, Founder member and Design Director of the design group CALLUM, was born in Dumfries, Scotland and attended a course in Industrial Design at Glasgow School of Art, followed by a 2-year course in Automobile Design at the Royal College of Art. Ian spent the first 12 years of his career at Ford Design Studios, then a period as Chief Designer of TWR Design, where he was responsible for the Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish, before joining Jaguar in 1999. He continued to manage Aston Martin Design, developing the DB9, as well as directing Jaguar Design where he and his team created, amongst others, the R-Coupe, RD-6 and C-X75 concepts. In his tenure at Jaguar, he was responsible for such 'fast, beautiful‘ production cars as the XK, XF, XJ, F-TYPE and XE. In 2015 Ian led his team to launch the second generation XF, followed by the F-PACE, Jaguar’s first SUV, the E-PACE and the I-PACE, which was crowned World Car of the Year, World Car Design of the Year and World Green Car of the Year. In 2005 Ian was awarded the title of Royal Designer for Industry from the RSA and in 2014 he received the Minerva Medal – the highest accolade bestowed by the Chartered Society of Designers, awarded for a lifetime’s achievement in design. In 2015 Ian was named the most influential person in UK design today by The Drum and he has received six honorary doctorates from universities around the world. Having left Jaguar Cars in June 2019 after 20 years, Ian became a founder member of the Design Group named CALLUM based in Warwick England. |
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Gert Hildebrand Owner, Hildebrand Design |
After studying Mechanical Engineering at TH Karlsruhe and design at the Braunschweig University of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, Mr Hildebrand began his design career at Opel. Subsequently he has held senior design positions at Volkswagen, Seat, 3M, Mitsubishi, JCI, Mini, Quoros and Bordrin Design, Shanghai. Among the many vehicles for which he was responsible are the Opel Junior and Kadett E, Volkswagen Golf 3, Seat Toledo 2 and Leon 1, multiple Mini and Qoros models, and the 1994 Le Mans winning Porsche 962. |
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Patrick le Quément Designer President of the Strategy Committee The Sustainable Design School |
Born in France, he studied in Great Britain where he graduated as an industrial designer from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. He began his 42 year automotive design career in SIMCA, moved rapidly to Ford where he eventually headed the Design center in Ford of Germany. After 17 years with Ford, he moved in 1985 to the Volkswagen-Audi Group as responsible for Advanced Design. In 1987 he joined Renault to take charge of Renault Corporate Design, a company he would stay in 22 years. In the course of 1995 he was named Senior Vice President of both Design and Corporate Quality, made a member of the board of Directors and, answered directly to the CEO. He left Renault in 2009 to create his own consultancy, specialized in naval design and strategic design. Since 2010, he has designed a large number of boats, some of which were given both European and US awards. In 2013, he co-founded together with Maurille Larivière and Marc Van Petegem, in Nice « The Sustainable Design School » which is a member of the Côte d’Azur University. Patrick le Quément has received numerous awards including : « European Car Designer of the Year » in 2002, the same year the Raymond Loewy Foundation presented him with the « Lucky Strike Designer Award » in recognition for his lifetime contribution to Design. In 2004 in Madrid, he was elected by Car & Driver « Personality of the Decade. » Finally, in 2015 he was presented the prestigious American prize « EyesOnDesign Lifetime Design Achievement Award. » He has been the subject of 2 biographies : « Patrick le Quément- Renault Design » in the Carmen series published in 2000 by the Italian editor Automobila. The second in 2011, « From Ford to Renault - 40 Years of Design - in the footsteps of Patrick le Quément » published by E.T.A.I. He is also the author of a book « Design Between the Lines » published by Merrell Publishers, London/New York. |
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Tom Matano Executive Director, School of Industrial Design, at Academy of Art University, San Francisco |
Matano has thirty years of experience in the automotive design industry. He held design positions at GM Design in US, GM Holden’s in Australia, and BMW in Germany. In 1983, he joined Mazda’s North American design team. From 1999 to 2002, Matano worked at Mazda Headquarters in Japan, as an Executive Designer in charge of the Chief Designers group. His accomplishments at Mazda include the MPV, MX 5 Miata, RX 7, and many other projects by the design teams he managed. Mr. Matano is committed to develop young talents, by using his diverse knowledge and experience, at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, since 2002. Now the program is ranked among the top Industrial Design Program in the country. |
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Victor Nacif Chief Creative Officer, Brojure.com Design instructor, New School of Architecture and Design |
Born in Mexico, Victor moved to the U.S.A at the age of 9. His artistic abilities and passion for Automobiles allowed him to attend College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan (CCS). Victor’s career spans 38 years in the Automotive Industry through 3 great Automobile companies- Ford Motor Co. Design, PSA Peugeot Citroën Design and Nissan Design. Leading and Managing on multiple Automotive projects from Advanced Concept to Production, Exterior, Interior and Color and Trim. During his career he has lived and worked in the USA, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and France. He is fluent in Spanish, English and French. Victor is now working on a variety of Projects that entail Interior Design, Product Design and Human Centric Design for the Office space. He is Chief Creative Officer at Brojure.com, a visually stunning software for the Travel Industry, and is a Design instructor at NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, California. |
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Shiro Nakamura CEO Shiro Nakamura Design Associates Inc. |
Born in Osaka Japan 1950. Graduated from Musashino Art University in 1974 and joined Isuzu Motor Company. He studied at the Art Center College of Design in the US and holds a BS with distinction. He worked at General Motors Design in Michigan, created Isuzu Europe’s Design studio, and in 1998, became global design director of the design center. His most notable creation at Isuzu was the VehiCROSS SUV concept. In 1999, Shiro was requested to join Nissan Motor Company to vitalize design. He served as Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer until March 2017. He established the strategy of design and brand for both Nissan and Infiniti contributing to the turnaround of the company. Throughout his career at Nissan he has created distinctive designs such as the Nissan 350Z, Cube and the iconic GT-R. He also led the design team that penned Nissan crossover vehicles including the Murano, Rogue/Qashqai, Juke and Infiniti FX. In addition, Nakamura has been awarded numerous accolades including France’s Grand Prix du Design and America’s Eyes On Design Award among others. He established SHIRO NAKAMURA DESIGN ASSOCIATES in April 2017, and is continuing creative activities as a design consultant. |