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History of the EyesOn Design Awards at NAIAS

EyesOn Design at the North American International Auto Show (EOD at NAIAS) in Detroit began in 2005 in it’s current format. Although we had attempted to construct an awards system earlier than this, we had been esthetically and financially unsuccessful. What eventually made the event a success was the brilliant leadership of Thomas Gale. One of the founders of the EyesOn Design summer car show, Mr. Gale approached the Institute in 2004 with an analysis of exactly what would have to be done to transform the awards. His suggestions were to have only a very few awards, and judging only by the most senior, most successful, most prestigious members of the design community. He categorized the targeted designers he wanted into four sub-groups. First, the active global design leader of the top dozen automotive original equipment manufacturers. Second, the leading transportation design professor at the world’s six or eight most prestigious design schools. The third group to be made up of the leaders of design from the very successful independent automotive design studios. Lastly, Mr. Gale counseled us to include no more than half a dozen retired global design leaders from the major OEMs.

The chief judges for the EyesOn Design Awards at the North American International Auto Show have included:

Chris Bangle, Director of Group Design, BMW
William G. Davidson, Senior Vice President & Chief Styling Officer, Harley-Davidson Motor Company
Niels Diffrient, Industrial Designer & Architect
Larry Erickson, College for Creative Studies, Paul & Helen Farago Chair of Transportation Design
Giorgetto Giugiaro, Chairman, Italdesign
Michael Graves, Michael Graves & Associates, and Michael Graves Design Group
Chuck Jordan, Vice President of Design (retired), General Motors Corporation
Tom Matano, Director, School of Industrial Design, Academy of Art University
Peter Stevens, Peter Stevens Design
Jack Telnack, Vice- President of Design, Ford Motor Corporation - (Retired)
Nate Young, Executive Vice President, Chief Academic Officer, Art Center

Our Judging panel has included:

Charles Allen - Senior Vice President/General Manager - Honda R&D Americas, Inc
Anne Asensio - Vice President of design Experience Dassault Systemes
Moray Callum - Executive Director, Ford Americas Design
Bruce Campbell - Vice President Design, Nissan Design America, Inc
Wayne Cherry - Vice President of Design (Retired), General Motors Corporation
Trevor M. Creed, Senior Vice President, Design, Chrysler Corporation
Daniel Cuffaro - Design Environment Chair, Department Head, Industrial Design Anne Fluckey Lindseth Professor of Industrial Design, IDSA
Larry Erickson - College for Creative Studies, Paul and Helen Farago Chair of Transportation Design
Henrik Fisker, Chief Executive Officer, Fisker Automotive
Bryon Fitzpatrick, Chair for Transportation Design, College for Creative Studies
Ralph V Gilles - President and Chief Executive Officer - Dodge Brand Senior Vice President - Product Design, Chrysler LLC
Fabrizio Giugiaro - Co-Chair and Styling Director, Italdesign
Dale Harrow, Head, Vehicle Design Department, Royal College of Art
Kevin Hunter - President, Design and Studio Operations, Calty Design Research
Chuck Jones - Vice President of Global Product Design, Whirlpool Corporation
Dave Marek - Chief Designer, Senior Manager, Honda R&D Americas
Tom Matano - Director, School of Industrial Design, Academy of Art University
Imre Molnar, Dean, College for Creative Studies
Keith Nagara - Director of Transportation Design Program Lawrence Technological University
Shiro Nakamura, Vice President & Chief Creative Officer, Nissan Motor Company
Suk Geon Oh - Executive Vice-President, Head of Design, Hyundai Motor Company
Ken Okuyama - CEO, Kiyoyuki Okuyama, Ken Okuyama Design USA, Inc.
Peter Pfeiffer, Senior Vice President Of Design, Mercedes-Benz
Joel Piaskowski, Hyundai KIA Design & Technical Center
Stewart Reed - Chair, Transportation Design, Art Center College of Design
Stefan Sielaff - Head of Design, Audi AG
Daniel J Sims, General Manager, Mitsubishi Motor Research & Design of America, Design Studio
Roland Sternmann, Executive Design Director Volkswagen/Audi Design Center
Jack Telnack - Vice- President of Design, Ford Motor Corporation - (Retired)
Mark Trostle, President, American Speed Company
Laurens Van Den Acker - General Manager, Design Division, Mazda Motor Corporation
Adrian Van Hooydonk - Director of Design, BMW Group
Franz von Holzhausen - Senior Design Executive, Tesla Motors
Gordon Wagener - Head Global Design, Mercedes-Benz
Ed Welburn - Vice-President, Global Design, General Motors Corporation

Please note: These were their titles the year they judged at EyesOn Design at the North American International Auto Show

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