BOLD RIDE
Copyright © 2015 Bold Ride LLC.
Keep the name Joshua Blundo in mind. Odds are good he’s going to be a major player in domestic automotive design starting in about four years.
Why so long? Well, he’s just a high school senior but he’s now won first place in a national Fiat Chrysler Automotive Design Competition and second place in an international Ford design competition.
He’s a talented high school kid who’s already designed two cars of the future. GM better wake up if they want to be in the running to hire this kid in 2019 when he graduates college.
Joshua, who lives in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, won the FCA contest with a next-generation Dodge vehicle for the year 2025. His choice was a sporty coupe with Viper DNA that just happens to be an electric vehicle to boot.
In an interview with Bold Ride, Joshua said, “I wanted to bring out the passion in automotive design. If we’re looking for inspiration I used, I tried to focus on the Viper. The roof is inspired by the fangs of a snake and how that comes over. I thought it would be interesting to have that influence.”
Mark Trostle, head of SRT, Mopar and Motorsports design for FCA, said, “What really drew me to his was the perspective he chose and he was able to catch the proportions of a new vehicle.”
Trostle said it can be a challenge for any designer — not just a high school student — to create a design like Joshua’s that is simple and timeless.
Trostle said Joshua’s design looks like something that could be seen on a studio design board. “The fact he was able to show that restraint really made it stand out.
Everything about it was simple and well thought out and really modern. His technique rendered the car well,” he added. Shown above is the second place design by Conner Stormer, of Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Joshua’s obviously got his sights set on a career in automotive design. After reading about the FCA contest online, he decided to enter just so he could get his name out there with Chrysler designers.
He already has a relationship with Ford designers after attending an automotive design summer camp three years in a row at Lawrence Tech in Southfield, Michigan. Plus he won that international contest to design a 2030 Ford Cortina (shown above).
How bright is his future?
First prize includes a $60,000 scholarship to the the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, one of the co-sponsors of the FCA competition – and he’s not sure he’s going to use it. He wants to see what Lawrence Tech has to offer in terms of scholarships.
The other winners of the FCA competition were: second place – Conner Stormer, Rochester Hills, Michigan; third place – Hwanseong Jang, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and, fourth place – Dongwon Kim,Sunnydale, California.
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