By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – South Korean vehicle manufacturer, KIA Motors, has won the Good Design award for the design of its three vehicles, including the brand known as the KIA Optima and the KIA Soul in the Namibian market. The third design award went to the Kia GT4 Stinger concept car, which is not yet in the market.
Chosen by Good Design’s jury of independent design professionals, industry specialists and design media, the three KIA models were evaluated on a range of criteria – innovative design, new technologies, form, materials, construction, concept, function, utility, energy efficiency and sensitivity to the environment.
“These three Good Design awards cap a particularly strong year for the KIA Motors design team, which has picked up a number of prizes for its work on our latest models,” said Soon-Nam Lee, Vice President of Overseas Marketing at KIA Motors Corporation.
He says the vehicle designs are the most striking and well-received designs KIA has ever produced, and some of the vehicle designs appeal for their classic, yet thoroughly modern styling and contemporary values of luxury. “The Good Design honours are testament to the team’s consistent design excellence,” he says.
The KIA design team, led since 2006 by Peter Schreyer, has won widespread acclaim for its striking and innovative work, and for contributing to KIA’s substantial global growth in recent years.
Established in 1950, the Good Design awards program – organised annually by The Chicago Athenaeum – celebrates design excellence across 25 different categories. Designers and manufactures in over 30 nations have won awards for contemporary design, and past recipients of Good Design awards include everything from a paperclip to a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and NASA spacecraft.