Polestar has announced their third annual design competition and this year’s contest is all about performance.
The brief asks designers to create a “Polestar that is the antithesis of the classic idiom of high-consumption performance rooted in the 20th century. It must visually show a new form of ‘Performance’ and tell the advanced technical story that enables this in a sustainable way.”
That’s pretty open-ended, but the Polestar Design Contest website elaborates by saying performance has been linked to consumption, noise, and pollution for too long so they’re seeking a new form of performance for the electric age. Designers are free to let their imaginations run wild and submissions will be accepted between August 22nd and 31st.
Also Read: Polestar Announces Winners Of 2040 Design Contest, Include An Autonomous Pod And Airship
10 professional and 10 student entries will be shortlisted, and they’ll receive “guidance and feedback in remote sessions with Polestar designers” to further refine their designs. Five professional and five student finalists will then be announced on November 1st, before the winners are revealed on November 11th.
Entries will be judged by Polestar’s Head of Design Maximilian Missoni as well as Senior Design Manager Juan Pablo Bernal and Car Design Research Director Sam Livingstone. Two winners will be selected this year as the company is looking for one exterior design and one interior design.
Most interestingly, the winning exterior design will be turned into a full-size 1:1 scale model – if it’s “car-sized or smaller” – and it will be presented at the Shanghai Auto Show in April of 2023. This is pretty unique and the plan is that the full-size model will combine the winning exterior and interior designs.
As Maximilian Missoni noted, “For a design to be presented on the world stage in much the same way as one of Polestar’s own concept cars is a money-can’t-buy opportunity for any designer.” He added, “We want to encourage, support, and celebrate innovative design, and the people who realize it. What better way to do that than to present a full-size model of their creation on the center stage at one of the largest automotive shows in the world?”
