On July 16, 2023, Sohu held the "Sohu Unbounded Aesthetics Award" award ceremony, which was held in Beijing. On the day of the ceremony, the three key design keywords of the year, including "outbreak", "please" and "ascend", were announced, and 10 important awards were awarded, providing important guidance for future automotive design trends.
As Sohu's first automotive design selection event, the "Sohu Unbounded Aesthetics Awards" not only showcases cutting-edge automotive design products, but also becomes a high-quality and far-reaching cross-border communication platform. The award ceremony invited many well-known scholars and industry design experts, including Wang Xuanzheng, Director of the Graduate Department of the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Dean of the School of Design of Xinjiang University of the Arts, and Guo Ying, Dean of the School of Jewelry of China University of Geosciences. Sohu Video's "Sohu Auto" account and "Sohu Auto" WeChat video account broadcast the award ceremony live simultaneously.
At the award ceremony, Zhang Liyue, editor-in-chief of Sohu Automobile, reviewed the selection process of the 2023 "Sohu Unbounded Aesthetics Awards" and thanked the evaluation experts and participating car companies for their hard work. She also said that Sohu will be committed to building a platform for interaction and communication with leaders in the design industry, so as to collect more outstanding design cases and dig deeper into design concepts and elements that are close to people's hearts.
When it comes to current design trends in the automotive industry, Zhang Liyue emphasizes the importance of emotional needs. She noted that automotive design has shifted from functional design in the past to design that focuses more on brand philosophy and sustainability. The use of color is more refined and dynamic, and the emotional needs are more important. These trends have put forward higher requirements for designers, who need to incorporate more functions and technologies without sacrificing aesthetics, pay attention to environmental protection and emotional communication, listen to the real needs of users, and inject warmth and soul into industrial products.
Sohu has always been committed to the field of design, building a platform to interact with leaders in the design industry, pay attention to the dynamics of academic institutions, and actively participate in discussions about the future. At the same time, Sohu also focuses on understanding the real needs of consumers, solving problems through reverse push, collecting outstanding design cases, and mining popular design concepts.
Zhang Liyue said that under the dual promotion of media and platforms, Sohu has established a rich content ecology and has a large number of content creators and fans. They have built the "AUTO Zone" column to cross over to the field of automotive design and provide users with professional design interpretation and product experience. Sohu Auto and eight art academies jointly launched the "Unbounded Aesthetics Awards" activity, aiming to gather design industry leaders, strengthen exchanges, and discover and commend works with design value.
Since the launch of the "Sohu Unbounded Aesthetics Award" on May 28, nearly 100 shortlisted works have been collected, covering exterior design, interior design, material application, color application, ergonomics and forward-looking design concepts. These works have been voted and commented on by netizens and expert judges, and have produced 10 important awards, which are in line with the three annual design keywords of "exceptional", "please" and "ascending". In the future, Sohu will continue to deepen aesthetics and maintain annual communication and selection activities. They also plan to partner with design schools to enable brand designers to meet one-on-one with experts to nurture industry talent. In addition, they will expand the selection to focus on technology products and establish an evaluation system to expand the aesthetic discussion to watches, fashion and other fields.
In short, Sohu hopes that through this activity, it will establish contacts with experts, scholars and users in more fields, have in-depth exchanges, and explore more design value. As the article ends with the words: "Listen to thunder in a silent place, and see prosperity in a colorless place." "With the continuous development of social thought, automobile design is also evolving from functional design to more emotional design, and the brand continues to forge ahead, constantly meet new car needs, and promote the continuous iteration of automotive products and the continuous pursuit of excellence.