Stellantis’ Drive for Design contest is now up and running for the 11th straight year. The annual challenge gives high schoolers from the 10th to the 12th grades the chance to win prizes for their visionary automotive designs. The challenge issued to students picks up from the recent debuts of the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept and the production-intent Ram 1500 REV that is on the floor at the New York Auto Show. With Ram preparing a range of electric and electrified offerings, including a highly anticipated midsize truck, Stellantis wants entries that picture the electric Ram pickup of the future. Submissions will be judged equally on four criteria: craftsmanship, design quality, illustration, and originality.
First prize is eligibility for a summer internship at the Ram Design Studio, and a Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 digital drawing tablet that would help any winner make the most of their design dreams and that potential internship. Second- and third-place prizes are an Apple iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, a one-to-one review of the winners’ design portfolio, and a scholarship to a three-week “Transportation Design” summer course at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
The contest is not only sponsored by the Stellantis North America Product Design team, the jury includes a previous contest winner. Mark Tostle, VP of Ram Truck and Mopar Design, took first prize in a previous version of the contest held in 1987. He said of the win, “Participating in this contest gave me the confidence to pursue the path to a career in automotive design. Now, I want to help students find the connection between their creativity and the automotive industry. It is incredible to see our past winners come up through the design school ranks. I even get to see some of them as interns or coworkers in our design studio.”
The only restrictions for entrants are that they be legal U.S. residents in grades 10-12 currently attending a U.S. high school. Designs can be submitted from now until Friday, April 21, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Winners will be announced a week later, on April 27. The prizes will be handed out at the EyesOn Design Vision Honored Award Ceremony in Detroit in May. Over that span, Stellantis will post weekly updates and contest content on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the hashtag #DriveForDesign.
Check out the Drive for Design site for more information on the contest, submissions from previous years like the Helios concept above by last year’s winner Rocco Morales, a bunch of videos from Stellantis designers, and goodies like a high-res poster and a coloring book. And to all of the high schoolers going for it, good luck.
