Kia Wins Flurry Of Top Design Awards
Kia has notched up another trio of international design awards, on top of the three it won earlier in the year.
The latest awards came in the Automotive Brand Contest 2012, adding to the series of honours for the Kia design team headed by Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer.
The new Kia cee’d, which has just been launched in Europe, triumphed in the exterior category and also received an honorary special mention for exceptional innovation in the interior category.
The high profile jury, run by the German Design Council, selected the Kia GT as the winner of the concept award after the rear-wheel drive sports sedan design study created a stir at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. The cee’d and GT follow in the tracks of the Sportage, Rio and Optima, which were all winners for Kia in last year’s competition.
The award for the cee’d highlights the success of the second generation design, which features styling typically found on a sporty coupe, but offers the space and functionality of a five-door hatch. The Kia GT design study was inspired by 1970s grand tourers and combines supple, muscular proportions with a sophisticated, elegant four-seat interior.
The Automotive Brand awards come on the back of the Kia Rio gaining a coveted 2012 Red Dot Design Award, followed by a bronze medal in the transportation design category of the IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards) programme.
Since its inception in 1955, the Red Dot Design award has become one of the world’s largest and most recognised design competitions. The new Kia Rio was awarded thanks to its “powerful personality, created by a distinct wedge shape, a low roofline and its metal-to-glass ratio”. The jury praised not only the Rio’s self-contained design, but also its sound workmanship.
The IDEA awards are decided on by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and recognise designs that affect a person’s quality of life in 18 categories. The judging panel cited the Rio’s fresh, sporty feeling; exciting design, and environmental credentials, saying it is “a car that is extremely attractive with a fresh feeling of sportiness – a car that people will want to buy for its looks as well as its environmental credentials. In the 2012 model Kia created a car that answers consumer demand for more quality, more choice and a more attractive, exciting design.”
Not to be outdone, Kia’s smallest car, the Picanto recently collected an iF (International Design Forum) Award from the Hanover-based global design organisation, for its exceptional styling and packaging.
