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Rolls-Royce reveals Young Designer Competition winners

October 13, 2020

Léna, age 11, from Hungary won the Fun category in the Rolls-Royce Young Designer Competition. Image credit: Rolls-Royce

 

British automaker Rolls-Royce has announced the winners of its Young Designer Competition, which encouraged children to design their dream cars.

Winners were selected for four different categories which emerged from the more than 5,000 entries: technology, environment, fantasy and fun. The marque introduced the contest in April as a creative outlet for children during lockdown (see story).

“We are delighted to announce the winners in our Young Designer Competition,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO at Rolls-Royce, in a statement. “The entries that stood out for us were those that showed a real depth of thought, effort and expression, and incorporated lots of different details.

“The winning entrants didn’t just draw ‘the nicest car,’” he said. “They created amazing experiences that showed the freedom of their imagination, not hindered by physical, real-world constraints.”

Creative freedom
For the contest, Rolls-Royce inspired creativity by having minimal rules or judging criteria for entries. The simple prompt for participants to design their “dream Rolls-Royce of the future” led to creative freedom.

The four winners range in age from six to 16 and hail from China, Japan, France and Hungary. Each will enjoy a ride to school with their best friend in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce rendering of one of the winning designs

Three others were “highly commended” for their designs which were unable to be categorized.

Those seven children had their entries turned into digitally-rendered illustrations by the Rolls-Royce Design Team, using the same software and processes as a professional Rolls-Royce design project. The renderings are being shared by Rolls-Royce on social media.

“There is some amazing talent out there, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of our entrants went on to work as car designers one day – perhaps even at Rolls-Royce,” Mr. Müller-Ötvös said.

The marque has long been committed to the art community and supportive of creative design.

Rolls-Royce is set to announce the winners of its inaugural Dream Commission, a biennial prize honoring creativity in the media of moving image. The automaker will announce four finalists for the Dream Commission on Oct. 21 (see story).