Fiat Chrysler announced the winners of this year’s Drive for Design competition, a design contest that calls on high school students to come up with what they think FCA products should look like in the future. Since getting young people to design pickup trucks is now all the rage, this year’s event involved designs for a future Ram truck. And judging from the winning entries, the future of truck design is bright.
Taking the top spot is 12th grader Job Skandera from Santa Clara, California who penned this aggressive-looking pickup called the Magma. Despite the oversize wheels, it’s probably the most realistic and down-to-earth design out of the top three, featuring some styling elements that we could genuinely envision being applied to a real, future Ram truck. Skandera’s truck boasts adjustable suspension “suitable for children and elderly, to extreme off-road adventures,” a “UV water purification system,” and a stove in the tailgate. Surely, this is the kind of creativity that’s missing from today’s automaker boardrooms.
Coming in second is Vincent Piaskowski, an 11th grader from Birmingham, Michigan with an electric Ram. Without the need for a big gas engine up front, Piaskowski has cleverly pushed his cab forward for a much bigger bed and better visibility. It’s a cool design that kinda resembles what a future Toyota Tundra may look like what with its two-tone exterior (Toyota likes to do that these days) and small, off-to-the-corner headlights.
In third place, we have what’s probably the most radical design of the trio. Penned by 11th grader Alex David Kirschmann from Auburn Hills, Michigan, the Ram 1500 Series A features a RamBox storage compartment, retractable bed cover, and a short-bed design seemingly made for science fiction. “Guts. Glory. Ram,” indeed.
The first-place winner will receive a Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 tablet while the two runner-ups will be getting an Apple iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. More importantly, perhaps, all three students will be getting virtual face-time and sketching demos with real, professional FCA designers.
“Automotive design is a growing field and often overlooked by parents and students, our goal is to inspire and change that perspective,” said Ram design boss Mark Trostle. “There are many career paths available within automotive design where young designers will have the opportunity to create some of the most exciting and technologically advanced products on the road today, as well as create what’s possible for the future.”
We could be looking at the next Luc Donckerwolke.
Got a tip? Send us a note: tips@thedrive.com