The Opticore Stratellus by automotive designer Mark Richardson is a very dynamic off-road sports wagon, described as a “commanding, earthy vehicle poised for action with a lithe and sinuous exterior”.
Click for larger images.
The Stratellus features a reflective body color coating that provides one-way visibility for the privacy of the passengers, and an optional ‘backpack’ that locks on to the tailgate to store wet and muddy outdoor gear. The interior features a foldaway rear seat and customisable rear storage system with ‘hose out’ capacity.
The Opticore Boreas by budding automotive designer Pavle Trpinac is a unique combination of sports car and utility MPV with a rear area accessed either through left or right side openings, or through the rear hatch; a direct influence from backpacks.
The design would use recyclable plastic panels (some unpainted) mounted onto an aluminum space frame. This structure enabled Pavle to “avoid traditional styling elements and introduce simple and bold surfaces that enable plenty of variations while remaining distinctive and instantly recognizable”.
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Oct 1, 2003 - Today the winners of Go Digital are announced and the online exhibition of all 20 finalist designs from 14 countries goes live at the Go Digital website:
www.opticore.com/godigital
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Congratulations to Mark Richardson and Pavle Trpinac, the winners respectively in the professional designer category and non-professional designer category. Mark’s design concept, the Opticore Stratellus, is a very dynamic off-road sports wagon that clearly fits the competition’s lifestyle scenario brief as a vehicle for an active couple and their dog living in 2020. In its form language it seems particularly appropriate to the brief’s Scandinavian setting but in concept it would also appeal to those from Mark’s native Australia.
Pavle, who is from Serbia, took a different but equally successful approach with his design concept. Named after the Greek god of northern winds, the Opticore Boreas is a unique combination of sports car and utility MPV that fits particularly with the expressed desire of the characters in the lifestyle scenario brief to have an advanced, non-automotive type of vehicle.
Both Mark and Pavle will shortly be receiving their prizes of a full version of Opticore Realizer design software and an HP xw4000 workstation with a Pentium 4 processor, an nVidia Quadro4 graphics card and an HP 17 inch flat screen, which together are worth over $25,000!
Go Digital’s 13 senior automotive design industry judges marked every finalists’ digital design model against each of the competition’s published assessment criteria. This innovative, methodical process resulted in an exceptionally close table of results, something finalists who did not win should take some consolation in.
The online exhibition that goes live today is the first public showing of the two winning designs and the 18 other finalists’ design models, having been previewed exclusively to the automotive design industry at 'Designers Night' in Frankfurt in September.
This inaugural year of the world’s first automotive digital design competition has received exceptional critical acclaim from its judges and participants for its unique lifestyle scenario brief, digital model entry requirement and general organization.
"The best concepts stand out more if they are shown using digital models; sketch work tends to leave a lot to the imagination" - Dirk van Braeckel, Director of Design, Bentley.
"This competition is very useful for design directors to help them get in contact with new designers and new ideas" - Chris Bird, Director Design, Ford of Europe.
"I was very impressed by the quality of the submissions!" - Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President of Design, Nissan.
The standard of design models exceeded expectations, with several judges requesting contact details for the finalists. And having entries from 43 different countries gives credence to Go Digital’s status as the leading international automotive design competition.
Details on Go Digital 2004 will be announced later in the year and an awards ceremony for this year’s competition will be held at the Detroit Motor show early next year – watch this space and see www.opticore.com/godigital for more information and for the online exhibition of finalists’ designs.
The organizers at Opticore and Car Design News would like to extend their thanks to everyone who has contributed to the success of Go Digital, including in particular the competition participants. We hope you have enjoyed the competition!
Go to the online gallery at the GoDigital website: www.opticore.com/godigital
Related stories:
Go Digital finalists work to be shown in Frankfurt
Go Digital finalists selected
Go Digital judges announced
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