Written by / Zhang Linyu
Editor/ Zhang Nan
Design / Shi Yuchao
Receiving the notice of receiving the award for the annual car designer was at 6 p.m. on December 17, 2021, guan Baichi was a little confused, because a few days ago he knew that the other 15 car designers who competed with him for this award were all big names or directors in the industry, some even famous foreign designers, and their works had been widely accepted by the international market, and he was the youngest and shortest participant in the industry.
He had no hope of winning.
That afternoon, too late to think much, not too much time to be ecstatic, after receiving the notice, he immediately finished the nucleic acid, rushed directly to Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, took the nearest flight to Wuhan, and landed in the early morning, which was only 14 hours away from the award ceremony that afternoon.
This seems to have become a tradition of the previous Xuanyuan Awards: the jury selected the final results the afternoon before, and then the on-site notification, the receiving guests immediately set off from all over the world to the next day's awards site. This is somewhat exciting for the participating car companies and guests.
The Designer of the Year Award is the first new project in the 9 consecutive years since the Xuanyuan Awards were held, with the aim of encouraging the growth of local Chinese automotive designers, especially young designers, and is also an important affirmation of Local Chinese design.
"In fact, in recent years, local design has no longer blindly followed foreign brands, the industry has begun to look for designs suitable for Chinese users, and many independent brands are trying to surpass international brands." The Xuanyuan Awards for the first time to add the Designer of the Year Award is also to better tell the story of Chinese cars. Jia Ke, director of the Executive Committee of the Xuanyuan Award, vice chairman of the Xuanyuan Award jury, editor-in-chief of the Automotive Business Review, and president of the Xuanyuan School, said.
A total of 16 designers signed up for the competition, and the 15 models they designed also became the nominated models for the 9th Xuanyuan Awards, including Guanbaichi's GAC Trumpchi Shadow Leopard.
In fact, the 7 judges of the 9th Xuanyuan Award were still fiercely discussing the winners two hours before Guan Baichi received the notice. Ultimately, they believe that the car will rival Japanese models and will set off China's own street car culture.
South
Born in 1993, Guan Baichi was influenced by his father from an early age and loved cars.
He is a native of Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and as an art student, he chose to study at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, which was farthest from home, when he took the college entrance examination. "Since I went to college, I went to a school far away from home, and the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts was also an art school that I could enter at that time." He said that the major chosen at that time was automobile design.
Guangzhou's climate, diet and language are very different from his hometown, when there were 4 people in the dormitory, he was the only one who spoke Mandarin, and the other 3 talked about Cantonese while chatting, completely forgetting that there was another person in the dormitory who could not understand this dialect. "In the first half of the year, I felt a little out of place and couldn't melt in." Guan Baichi said.
The first two years of college are more difficult, in addition to the climate and life discomfort, more importantly, the content of the study is not directly related to car design. It wasn't until the beginning of the third year that 15 people were assigned to the automotive design studio, and finally there were like-minded people studying together, and the topics everyone talked about were related to cars, at that time, Guanbaichi's loneliness improved.
Also in this year, a Portuguese teacher in Guangmei took them to many places to see cars and races in Japan and Macau, and since that year, as a student of the Automotive Design Department, Guan Baichi has had a more in-depth contact with cars.
In my senior year, I need to find an internship opportunity. For automotive design students, the ideal is to find a car company to sponsor the graduation design. In Guangzhou, in addition to the GAC Research Institute, Honda Technical Research Institute is also a place that many students yearn for. Guan Baichi had heard that GAC was an open company that gave young people opportunities, and at that time he most wanted to go to GAC.
In 2015, in the first semester of the senior year, GAC came to the school to select interns, and the quota for that year was 2, and there were 15 students in the same period, including those who wanted to go to Honda Technical Research.
"At that time, I made a small portfolio of works, some of which were sketches drawn by myself, and one of which was probably a topic given by GAC, which was also drawing. It is equivalent to making a resume, putting some things about cars that I designed during college, when a person in charge of GAC came to our school to conduct some screening and interviews. ”
The interviewer asked him why he liked cars, why he wanted to choose this profession, and whether he wanted to develop these basic questions in the long run. Guan Baichi expressed his interest in physical design, 3D, and sculptural objects, as well as his desire to become a professional designer.
"What I can feel is that the interviewer thinks I like cars and wants to go deeper into this industry. Probably because I felt that this was the result of my own subjective choices, not passive, nor was I attracted to it with the development of the industry. They didn't choose people at that time to look entirely at the skills of the car profession, it may be to see if you have potential. Guan Baichi recalled.
In the second half of 2015, as a student in the first semester of his senior year, he entered the Concept and Styling Design Center of THE GAC Research Institute to begin his internship.
Stay in Cantonese
At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2015, GAC Trumpchi unveiled two concept cars, one is the i-lounge, which is a blue 7-seat version of the MPV, and the other is called the EV Coupe, which is a sporty SUV. The two cars attracted a lot of attention in the industry at the time.
Guan Baichi, who had been interning at GAC for two months at that time, saw these two cars in the venue. At that time, he heard that the designers of these two cars were from local designers in China, neither of them had overseas education or work backgrounds, and they had not been in GAC for a long time. This is similar to Guan Baichi's own academic background.
In 2015, domestic independent brands are still in line with the era of foreign brands, and it is common to ask foreign designers to take the helm and use this as a marketing selling point. Even if foreign designers are not used, the design of new cars or concept cars will at least be handled by senior designers who have worked for many years.
But Guan Baichi, who had just interned, felt a different atmosphere at the GAC Research Institute. He experienced that it was normal for young designers who had recently graduated to get the opportunity to design production cars or concept models at GAC, where they did not have to wait for time and experience.
The open atmosphere of the CONCEPT and Styling Design Center of the GAC Research Institute and the promotion of young people may be related to Zhang Fan, vice president of the GAC Research Institute. He himself won some international design awards when he was in school, and at the age of 28, he got the employment letter of Mercedes-Benz and went to Germany, becoming one of the few Chinese designers to enter foreign brands, especially luxury brands.
In 2011. Zhang Fan resolutely returned to China and joined GAC when his own brand was still on the edge, which played an important role in the product research and development of Trumpchi and the Aeon brand in the future, and he also worked together to create an open working atmosphere. His own upbringing also makes him pay special attention to the cultivation of young people.
As a graduating Official Baichi, this is very attractive, he is eager to find his future career path, and GAC is the workplace environment he yearns for.
After completing the one-year internship period, Guan Baichi did not successfully obtain a retention quota. That year was 2016, and there were only two recruitment places in the styling design room outside the GAC Research Institute, and Guanbaichi was not included in this quota. The personnel asked him to wait and see, and then apply again the next year, when he was not sure if he could find other jobs.
The intern instructor who brought him strongly recommended him at the time, wanted to help him stay at GAC, and eventually got an extra place with the support of Zhang Fan. Under such circumstances, Guanbaichi entered GAC. This experience may have influenced Guan Baichi, but it is also related to his future diligence.
Seven years ago, he was deeply attracted by Trumpchi's two concept cars at the Guangzhou Motor Show, but he did not know that in a few years, the model he designed would be able to be mass-produced and favored by the market. What's more, he's younger than the designers of the two concept cars of the year.
Selection
At the end of his first year at GAC, he designed the Aion AION S, which was a great encouragement to him.
At the end of 2018, GAC Trumpchi decided to design a sports car for the young people's market, with the goal of making a blockbuster model.
At present, more than half of the designers in the gac exterior styling design department are post-90s, and it is difficult for them to lift the spirit of the family car design that is flat and stable all day long. Therefore, when Shadow Leopard was launched as a new project in the design group and tendered, many designers who were not in the sketch group bid, and some even prepared more than two plans.
"I remember the Shadow Leopard project, when it was assigned, it was said to be a coupe, how many seconds to accelerate 100 kilometers, how high the body should be, and we were very excited after listening to it, so many people came to draw, basically half of the people participated in the final proposal."
In the end, in the drawing stage, a total of more than 30 sketches were received, and the general number of bids for the usual new car project was about 10, which showed the excitement of the young designers of the Shadow Leopard car.
After several rounds of internal review and screening from the renderings to the 1:4 model, to the 1:1 model, and finally the sludge model, 3 schemes were finally selected for market research, and the research objects were hundreds of consumers, as well as the dealer leaders including GAC Trumpchi 4S stores, mainly from the two dimensions of consumers and sales.
Guanbai pond (left) with sludge modeler
Guanbaichi's proposal received more than half of the votes in the three candidates.
"My feeling at the time was that I was expressing everything I wanted to express. In the end, the selected plan was just based on the head and tail sides of my design, which was relatively complete, and the 360 degrees of the whole car were my own ideas, which looked more coordinated. ”
Guan Baichi's direct experience with sports cars comes from his own driving experience, and he said that he will try to avoid the weaknesses of his car on the shadow leopard.
"I really wanted to exhaust four out, and I didn't have it on my own car, so I was more insistent on the Shadow Leopard. I bring my own life experience into the project, and I will also ask myself from the consumer's point of view whether I will buy this car. In addition, when designing, I did not pay too much attention to the rational analysis of some markets, probably because I felt that I was unlikely to be selected, so my mentality was more relaxed. ”
"Impulse is something that doesn't have too many rules, it's better suited to doing an intrinsic deep innovation, because without rules, sometimes it creates something really forward-looking." Impulse is often driven by love, it has no external goal incentives, no money, and he has to do it too. One designer in the industry said of this insistence of young designers.
In addition, Guanbaichi's department will also rent some sports cars for experience and research, especially the benchmark models, designers will personally experience.
"To become a blockbuster, in addition to the shape, you need a very good project, plus a reasonable price, so as to form a cost-effective product." Exterior styling is only part of the job. Guan Baichi said.
Award
Shadow Leopard has been on the market since August 1, 2021, and its sales exceeded 10,000 units in the third month of listing.
14 hours after Guan Baichi arrived in Wuhan, the 9th Xuanyuan Awards Ceremony in 2022 opened on time at the Wuhan Sports Center. The shadow leopard designed by GuanBaichi and Gao He won the Automotive Of the Year Award together.
The jury believes that the emergence of shadow leopards has found a new path for traditional fuel vehicles. Under strict cost constraints, GAC broke with the norm and surpassed the competition through the ultimate shape, impactful power response and tough handling that combined exhaust sound, sportiness and comfort, and met the desire of young consumers to own their first car.
The guest of honor of the day Wasa leopard was Li Yong, deputy general manager of GAC Passenger Vehicle and general manager of GAC Trumpchi Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., who was a little emotional when he took the stage, and seemed to have a sense of happiness that his efforts were finally rewarded, or a sense of pity for finally finding a confidant.
He said: "The road for Chinese car brands to move up is not easy, it will be full of twists and turns, but I believe that GAC Trumpchi, like the 20 car brands here, will definitely go down firmly." ”
At this time, Guan Baichi sat in the guest seat, and in the space where the first and second leaders of the major car companies gathered together, his appearance represented a fresh and young face in comparison.
That afternoon, the grand finale was the award ceremony for the car designer of the year.
"As the exterior designer of the GAC Research Institute, Guanbaichi created a strong sporty attribute and visual impact for the Shadow Leopard with its meticulous curved outline and low center of gravity body posture, and designed a Chinese street car within reach for consumers." The guest of honor, Fu Lizhi of the School of Design and Creativity of Tongji University, finished reading the award speech.
Guan Baichi, dressed in black and black pants and white sneakers, took the stage and received the trophy from the hand of Jia Ke, the director of the executive committee of the jury, and at that moment, there seemed to be a sense of hope for inheritance.
He said: "As a person born in 1993, I feel very honored and fortunate to receive the title of Designer of the Year, and I am grateful to the Xuanyuan Award for helping the younger generation in China's automotive design industry." Personal honor mainly depends on themselves in a very good team, GAC design team adhering to the continuous pursuit of innovation and youth, and finally in the shadow leopard model has been unanimously recognized by consumers and experts, I sincerely thank my design director Mr. Zhang Fan for my guidance and trust, we will launch more excellent works in the future. ”
Team
"Compared with other competitors, the memory points of the Shadow Leopard car are very many, for example, you can imagine the two fangs of the headlights vertically with your eyes closed, the front face is a fighter element, two mouths; for example, matte green car paint, yellow decorative pieces, and four exhausts." Cars in their early 100,000 years can have four-wheel drive exhaust, including vertical mileage lights at the rear, and the layering of the tail is also very three-dimensional. Professionals say this when evaluating Shadow Leopard.
The success of a car, the shape is only part, more is the result of the cooperation of small teams to large teams.
For Guan Baichi, after the final three options were determined, they set up a project team internally, including the project leader, who was mainly responsible for communicating with the engineering department, as well as communicating with the modeling internal data and model work.
The project supervisor has the role of escorting the external stylist, ensuring that each design is engineering feasible, and also discussing and playing in the dispute.
The other is the parts designer, who is responsible for the implementation of the details after the theme has been selected. Parts designers do some optimization and engineering feasibility work on the lights, wheel hubs, mirrors and some small places. At that time, the three of them became a project team to ensure that the selected solution would eventually be implemented.
"This is only the working part of the exterior styling, but the Shadow Leopard car is the workload of hundreds of people, and the workload of the post-marketing end has not been involved here."
From the beginning of the sketch to the final mass production, Guanbaichi devoted about two and a half years to the exterior design of the shadow leopard. One and a half years is fully engaged, and another year is spent juggling other projects at the same time.
Many car companies, including foreign brands, designers may not have the opportunity to design mass production cars in their lifetime, because the research and development cycle of cars is at least two to three years, and in the past it was more than four years, especially foreign brands.
Guan Baichi was very lucky, designing the Aeon S in less than a year after joining the company, and winning the bid for shadow leopard two years later. "I'm a prolific designer of my age."
Zhang Fan said to his designers that their growth curve is probably the best years before work, and then they have to rely on experience.
"We may have fresh ideas here more than experience, because experience your predecessors and people around you can help you make up for it, but original ideas or relatively large ideas, this is more difficult to find." 」 Guan Baichi said.
Innovation is very important for young designers, but at the same time understanding the past and understanding the ins and outs of a car company's aesthetics, a good young designer training mechanism is the direction that every car company is striving for.
After receiving the award, Guan Baichi went to Shanghai for a short period of study for several months, where gac motor's forward-looking design center is located.