Land Rover brings home trophy for Best Brand Design Language; Jaguar I-PACE Concept is named top Concept Car.
We’ve known that Jaguar and Land Rover make beautiful vehicles for years. The F-TYPE is a lithe, semi-sexual object of desires and fantasies. The Evoque may be a small Land Rover, but it’s big on style. This year’s 2017 Car Design Awards confirmed it: Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are officially gorgeous.
According to JLR, Auto & Design magazine held the awards ceremony at the Turin Motor Show to “celebrate brands and models that have contributed significantly to the evolution of automotive design. An international panel of journalists chooses winners in three categories: Concept Cars, Production Cars and Brand Design Language (new for 2017).” The jury included people from such publications as Top Gear, Car and Driver China, Automobile, and, of course, Auto & Design.
JLR representatives went up to accept three awards. Thanks to the Jaguar I-PACE Concept, they got the prize for the best entry in the Concept Car category. The 394-horsepower/516-lb-ft electric one-off beat out the huge and handsome Cadillac Escala and the dramatic and curvy Renault Trezor. Land Rover’s new Velar earned its designers second place in the Production Cars category. It may not have been first, but being edged out by a machine as visually graceful and stunning as the new Ford GT is almost a compliment. However Land Rover’s crew members took it, they also took home the prize for having the Best Brand Design Language. Silvia Baruffaldi, editor of Auto& Design and President of the Jury of the Car Design Award, said, “In bringing back the Car Design Award we wondered if it might not be fair to also reward the design team that more than any other has been able to give substance and consistency to a brand’s styling idiom over a time span longer than just a single model. Land Rover has done an excellent job in this regard.”
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
