SABIC and London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) recently named the winners of the VISIcON automotive lighting design competition during an awards ceremony at the university’s Kensington campus. The SABIC-sponsored four-month program challenged post-graduate students from the RCA’s Vehicle Design and Textiles Design programmes to develop innovative automotive lighting concepts using SABIC materials.

The students worked on both an individual and team level. VISIcON’s individual grand prize was awarded to Daniel Quinlan (Ireland) with Franklin Brown (United States) and Stephen Russell (United Kingdom) as close runners-up. Pierre Andlauer and Henri Peugeot (France), Selim Benhabib (Turkey) and Cherica Haye (United Kingdom) earned top honours for the best team design.

Haye, a second year Textiles Design student, was also chosen as the grand award winner in the materials research category. The VISIcON project served as a unique, career preparatory experience for the RCA’s participating students and helped highlight not only on the importance of materials identification and selection in the earliest stages of the design process, but also the high potential of high-performance plastic materials to take automotive design in new directions.

“We congratulate the winning student designers and all of the participants for fully embracing the challenge behind VISIcON,” said Scott Fallon, general manager, automotive, with SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business. “It’s clear to us that the students took full advantage of the design freedom that our thermoplastic solutions offer.

"Their concepts wowed us and provided a glimpse into the future of automotive lighting and vehicle design, from bold new styling possibilities to expanded functionality. We look forward to building off the inspiration from VISIcON and helping our customers to apply the latest technology and enhance lighting on their vehicles.”

The students’ work was presented to a jury made up of distinguished automotive designers, SABIC and RCA representatives and other external experts.

“All of the concepts and models that we saw at VISIcON demonstrated feats of imagination, collaboration and innovation,” said Richard Woolley, Land Rover’s Advanced Design Studio Director and one of VISIcON’s jury members. “This was a fantastic project for these young designers. I was impressed by the students’ creativity and thoroughly enjoyed seeing their visions of how plastics can bring about positive change to car lighting and mobility in the future.”

The VISIcON project allowed for a free movement of ideas and thinking across design disciplines (Vehicle Design, Textiles and Industrial Design) and included the Vehicle Design department’s three automotive studios – Automark (brand identity), Urban Flow (exterior design) and Inside Out (interior design).

“This cross-pollination of ideas across studios and disciplines was a big strength of the VISIcON project,” said Professor Dale Harrow, head of RCA’s Vehicle Design department. “We believe in developing designers who can take a broader view and are open to different perspectives. VISIcON allowed us to do just that and, backed by SABIC’s expertise in material solutions, enabled the students to create some truly unique pieces of work.”

Quinlan’s award-winning ‘ENOPE’ model in the individual vehicle design category cleverly uses SABIC’s materials to enhance functionality and improve aesthetics. This includes using the lit-up edges of the vehicle’s LEXAN glazing as innovative lighting units for forward lighting and rearward and side marking.

His model follows a deep sea, bioluminescence-inspired lighting theme and is based on a highly creative interpretation of the materials research of Textiles Design student Sofie van Aelbroeck (Belgium), a teammate of Quinlan’s in the group exercise and runner-up in the materials research category.

Individual runner-ups Brown and Russell impressed the jury with their models and underlying research. Brown produced an electric sports coupe concept which is highly customizable through the smart use of advanced 3D printing technology. Both the exterior and interior panels contain lighting elements to achieve new design functionality and lighting is used to communicate information about the state of the vehicle and its movement both to the driver and others. Russell’s approach was entirely different. His vehicle, in the form of meticulously folded transparent sheets, focused mostly on the use of natural light and led to the discovery of a new and highly innovative formal design language, which inspired many of his peer students throughout the course of the VISIcON competition.

The winning team of Andlauer, Peugeot, Benhabib and Haye adopted the ‘Hypereality’ (hyper reality) theme. They combined three highly individual designs into one sculptural vision that uses lighting to enhance natural elements like wind and rain and create the impression of vehicle speed.

They developed two sculptural forms: a 3D-printed mobility form; and a larger, UV-enhanced transparent sculpture enabled by VISUALFX resins from SABIC, which adds illumination and depth. This larger model is beautifully supported by tensioning yarns to further underline its sense of strength and spirit of movement.

Haye earned acclaim in the material research category by weaving plastic light guides as yarn into premium textile patterns. The combination of materials, illuminated by a powerful light engine, produced a high-value light effect that is both beautifully intricate and original.

SABIC awarded study bursaries to the individual award winners and runner-ups. Students from the winning and runner-up teams received Apple iPads.