{"id":27928,"date":"2019-09-04T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=27928"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:17","slug":"young-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2019\/09\/young-talent.html","title":{"rendered":"Young Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you heard about FCA\u2019s incredible annual\ndesign competition, the Drive for Design? What started as a local contest has\ngrown every year since it was launched in 2013, to the point where it\u2019s now a\nnational competition tied into the EyesOn Design Exhibition, with the winners\nbrought into town for the weekend to attend the black tie dinner and subsequent\ncar show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven years ago, Dodge and SRT\u00ae<\/sup>\u2019s Head of Design\nMark Trostle spearheaded an effort with FCA to bring back the design\ncompetition that was huge in his life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack in the day, there was an automotive design contest for local high schoolers featured at the Detroit Autorama, which awarded a scholarship to attend the city\u2019s College for Creative Studies (CCS). Winning this as a youngster kind of kick started my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite being told by counselors and teachers\nthat \u201che wasn\u2019t good enough at math\u201d to design cars, teenage Mark knew they\ndidn\u2019t have a clue about what the career he wanted entailed. The Drive for\nDesign bridged the gap those high school authority figures created to a shot at\none of the most prestigious design programs in the country, CCS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after he won, however, the contest\ndissolved. As Mark progressed in his career, he was motivated to re-introduce\nthe Drive for Design. Much like my wife, Darla, and I try to expose youth to the\nskilled trades, Mark wants to show kids that, if they so choose, automotive\ndesign is a viable career option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the current program\u2019s launch, it\u2019s grown\nfrom a contest between Detroit area juniors and seniors, to Michigan juniors\nand seniors, into a national event including high school students from 10th\nthrough 12th grade. FCA sponsors it, and the winners receive some incredible\nprizes, like a private tour of the Product Design Office, a scholarship to a\nCollege for Creative Studies summer program for Transportation Design, and\ntablets specific to designers. The scholarship is super cool, because CCS\u2019s\nTransportation Design program is hard to get into and even harder to succeed in. It\ngives students a bit of a foot in the door for college and also prepares\nthem for the difficult journey ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s contest commenced with an hour-long Facebook LIVE Q&A with both Mark Trostle and his counterpart at Jeep\u00ae<\/sub> Brand,\nMark Allen. Have you ever done an hour of live TV? I hadn\u2019t until this event\nfrom FCA\u2019s famed design dome. That\u2019s right, yours truly hosted the discussion.\nI was nervous as hell, but as we talked, it became more and more just a\nconversation amongst friends. We discussed art and design, the future of the\nautomotive industry and their personal fleets, then fielded questions that viewers\nasked via social media. And, of course, we laid out the details of the Drive\nfor Design, like what this year\u2019s theme was, what kind of sketches were OK to\nenter and what the judges were looking for. The hour was up in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of judges, I was honored to be\nincluded as the guest Judge for 2019\u2019s Drive for Design! To sit beside FCA\u2019s\ntop designers on the top floor of PDO while going through almost 100 student\nentries was a surreal experience, and being part of the process of finding a\nwinner was a task none of us took lightly. What were we looking for? To start,\nthe theme this year was to design the \u201cUltimate Status Vehicle\u201d, the definitive\nexpression of any FCA brand. Basically, give us your \u201chalo\u201d car. Past that, it\nwas originality, style and how skillfully the vision was executed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quality of work these young kids had\nsubmitted was bonkers, and it was difficult to whittle it down to the top ten,\nthen the top 4, then the 3 winners. Even selecting the champ from the\nrunner-ups was tough. But, after some spirited back and forth, the list was\nset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maximillian Cooper, a senior from Miami,\nFlorida, came out on top with \u201cSerpente\u201d, a wild Alfa Romeo hypercar. I love\nthe position of the cockpit, and the front splitter\/grill is wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"vehicle<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mason Ross hails from Burien, Washington, and\nhis entry was an Alfa Romeo, as well. The fit of his \u201clivery\u201d for the racecar is\nunique, and the sketches accompanying the full render are just plain\nwicked.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"vehicle<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A local student, Vincent Piaskowski of\nBirmingham, Michigan, rounded out the trio. \u201cPescecane\u201d is Italian for shark,\nwhich is clearly an apt title for his exceptional Maserati. The \u201cevolution\u201d\nsketches are clever, and Vincent did really well thinking outside of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"vehicle<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The EyesOn Design formal dinner held in Detroit was incredible. Mark gave a presentation at the beginning about the Drive for Design, Ralph Gilles spoke in place of 2019 Lifetime Design Achievement Award winner Leonardo Fioravanti (the dude who designed the Ferrari F40, the Testarossa and countless other legendary cars), and a young doctor gave a fascinating talk on developing technology to allow the blind to see. The interplay between design and sight is so important, which is why having artists support this type of research makes so much sense.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That night, I was also fortunate to meet and\nchat with all three of the winners. If first impressions are worth anything, the\nautomotive industry is in good hands! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was humbling to be part of the Drive for Design\u2019s process as both the host of the live kickoff event and especially as a judge. Thank you to Mark Trostle and the FCA team for inviting and welcoming me in! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"four<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard about FCA\u2019s incredible annual design competition, the Drive for Design? What started as a local contest has grown every year since it was launched in 2013, to the point where it\u2019s now a national competition tied into the EyesOn Design Exhibition, with the winners brought into town for the weekend to attend the black tie dinner and subsequent car show. Seven years ago, Dodge and SRT\u00ae\u2019s Head of Design Mark Trostle spearheaded an effort with FCA to bring back the design competition that was huge in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":27942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showcase"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/feature-3.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27928"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43521,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27928\/revisions\/43521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}