Smart launches a design contest

Smart is staying true to its brand slogan "Open Your Mind" and opening to outside ideas with a design contest. From January 6, 2010 fans of Smart and design worldwide are invited to design a Smart fortwo on Style Your Smart. Smart is looking for the coolest Smart design and will award prizes with a total value of €5000 to the winners.

Marc Langenbrinck, Managing Director Smart brand and Head of Sales & Marketing smart says "In our daily contact with our customers we keep experiencing how passionate they are about Smart. Many of them personalise their Smart with products from our wide range of accessories. Lots of them go even further and realise their own ideas. We are now taking this up. The design contest offers all Smart drivers and fans a platform to lend expression to their creativity."

Participants can give free rein to their imagination. A design configurator is available on online. It offers a multitude of colours, prints, patterns and shapes. At the same time budding artists can also develop their own graphic ideas. In addition, they can exchange views with other contestants and comment on and rate ideas and designs. In this way a design community for car enthusiasts and Smart fans will be created.

Designs can be put online until February 23, 2010. An independent expert jury will subsequently select the best contributions based on the community ratings. The winners will be announced on the website on February 26, 2010 and can look forward to prizes totalling €5,000.

"Style your Smart" is one of more than 1200 ideas submitted by the "Business Innovation Community", a Web 2.0 platform on the Daimler intranet.

Employees can post their ideas here – and their colleagues from other departments and regions can comment on them, rate them and further develop them.

(source: Smart)