About the GM competition

Welcome to the competition!

The finalists have been announced!

Congratulations to our competition finalists, who were chosen by the judges in Michigan last week. They are listed below, separated by brand, with their screen name in brackets:

Buick:
He Wang (James Wang), of College for Creative Studies
Gihwan Kim (Gihwan Kim), of College for Creative Studies
Ali Khanzadi (alikhanzadi), of College for Creative Studies
Byungwan Kang (Infantry), of College for Creative Studies
Edward Tseng (Edwardtseng), of Art Center College of Design

Cadillac:
Beomyoul Lee (Viverty), of College for Creative Studies
Alvin Tseng (Alvint), of Art Center College of Design
Euiseong Son (ESON), of College for Creative Studies
Namwoo Kim (namwoo7), of College for Creative Studies
Adam Guy (Aguy), of College for Creative Studies

Chevrolet:
Namsuk Lee (N. Lee), of College for Creative Studies
Eugenio Sellaro (Sellaro), of College for Creative Studies
Wonsu Cho (Silverion), of College for Creative Studies
Rick Reininger (Double_R_Design), of Humber College
Kinyanjui Migwe (K.migwe), of University of Cincinnati

GMC:
Reymin De Leon (Reymin D.), of Humber College
Paul Mutter (PaulMutter), of College for Creative Studies

Phase 2 is now open!

The 17 finalists from Phase 1 of the competition will now progress to the second stage of the competition. We apologise that Phase 2 is not open to any other student who has not made it as a finalist this year.

The finalists' task is to continue to develop both their Interior and Exterior designs from Phase 1 into a final entry, with guidance from their mentors; a team of leading design experts from GM, Car Design News, and our competition partners: Alcantara, CGT and SRG Global.

PHASE 2 DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 25TH 2012

The final judging will take place in late November, where the judges will gather together to choose their 5 winners.

The finalists are all automatically invited to attend the NAIAS in Detriot, January 2012, where their work will be displayed to the professional design community and the winners will be announced.

There are 5 ultimate prizes on offer - A paid internship at GM's design studios in Warren, Michigan.

There is still all to play for, no one student is clearly out in front. Good luck to all the finalists!

You can read more about the competition below...

Who we are

You may already be familiar with us, as our competition last year sparked huge interest amongst the student design community across America.

The four winning students were awarded paid internships at GM to kick-start their career, and every finalist saw their work displayed at the North American International Motor Show in January this year.

This year, GM is again offering paid internships to the competition winners!

Entering

On the homepage you will see four GM logos: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.

Each of these brands set a brief, which students had to read very carefully. You can read the different briefs by clicking on each of the logos on the homepage.

Students were asked to choose the brief or brand that most interested them (although there was no limit to how many they could enter!)

Important rule:

Students MUST submit two separate entries against that brief (one Interior entry and one Exterior entry).

We know it’s easy to forget, it is a very tiny sentence that can be easily overlooked. This is why we put various messages and buttons and banners around the site as a reminder (there will really be no excuse in the end!)

So, all they needed to do was prove to the impressive line-up of world-class designers (the judges) that they have the talent, passion, creativity and expertise to join their team! Easier said than done, we know, but we promise they had some fun at the same time because there’s something special about this competition…

Who can see the entries?

Answer: Everyone!

This is an open, online competition that allows any visitor on the site to see the submissions. And more importantly, the competition is interactive, so anybody who joins the website and creates their own profile can make comments! They can ‘like’ them, ‘follow’ them and help the students along their way.

In addition, (did you really  think that was it?) students will have their own mentors to guide, support, encourage them and basically offer their knowledge, know-how and words of wisdom throughout the competition. The mentors are top designers from GM and from our competition partners: Alcantara, CGT PACE, and SRG Global. Wow. What other competition can offer you face-to-face interaction with senior designers from global companies? Well, not quite face-to-face, but screen-to-screen, keyboard-to-keyboard, button-to-button, mouse-to-mouse… You get the gist.

This is why it was VERY important for students to start uploading their ideas, sketches, mood boards, right from the start. This competition is all about progression, so we all wanted to see the journey they took to get to their final submissions. And the sooner they submitted something, the more feedback they got from their mentors and from the wider design community!

Competition timeframe:

May 2012 Competition launch (Phase 1)

September 2nd 2012 Phase 1 deadline

Mid-September 2012 Finalists announced

Late-September 2012 Phase 2 [for finalists] is launched (finalists compete against each other to be an eventual winner)

November 25th 2012 Phase 2 (for finalists) deadline. All finalists are invited to the NAIAS in January 2013

Early-January 2013 Finalists attend the NAIAS in Detroit for the announcement of the winners. The work of the finalists will also be displayed to the professional design community at the auto show.

We hope you enjoy the competition!

If you have any questions please contact...

      Phil, our operational manager will
      be happy to answer any questions you may have.
     
      Get in contact with Phil here

Last year's competition winners...

To read about last year's competition winners, click here

Watch video highlights from last year's announcement...

‘Faces of GM', one of General Motor's social media initiatives, tells the story of the people behind the brands of GM. The 2011 video of the CDN-GM Interactive Design Competition stars several of the winning students as well as the prize giving event, which took place on the Cadillac stand at the North America International Auto Show in Detroit.

The video, shot during the winners' presentation on the second press day, features competition winners Shane Harbour, Jiyeon Ha and Vitaliy Pankov.