Christophe Charbault Takes World Car Design Prize

Christophe Charbault Takes World Car Design Prize
"Big on Design" is the slogan of the 2005 Canadian International AutoShow, and it proved to be a big event for a French design student studying in Montreal who walked away with a cheque for $10,000 (U.S.).

Design has been the central focus of the Toronto show since 2001, when it hosted the first of what has become an annual Design Forum, during media preview days.

Encouraged by the success of the initial forum, its founder, Beth Xenarios, the media events director for the CIAS, expanded the design theme in 2002 to include a World Automotive Design Competition.

Open to students at design schools from around the world, it attracted 46 entries from five schools.

This year's competition features 70 entries from 97 students at 28 design schools in 14 countries.

In addition to the United States and Canada, participating countries include Australia, Brazil, China, England, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Wales,.

So popular has the competition become that the number of entries from each school has had to be restricted, Xenarios says.

Otherwise the sheer volume would be too onerous for the judges to deal with.

The students' challenge was to design a world car, for 2015, that visually identifies its cultural origins, has market appeal and could be sold in at least five countries on th