That's not a typo! A recent contest put on by Mazda solicited entries from aspiring designers all over the internet to help create the look of the 2018 model Mazda 3. Entries were accepted online, and one automotive artist would be chosen to work with Mazda to bring the design to life- first in a sketch, and then with a life-sized clay model.
At the 2007 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show is where it will all take place. Contest winner Mallory McMorrow of South Bend, Indiana is the winner of the Mazda Design Challenge. By time the Auto Show wraps up for this year, she'll be standing proudly beside a full-sized mock-up of her vision of the future. Of course, it's an exciting achievement, and one which will certainly look great on her resume if she pursues a career in automotive design. Voting for the winning model was carried out on Facebook, and the online community voted McMorrow as a finalist, at which point she was paired with Mazda's Jacques Flynn, a designer at Mazda who turned her idea into a sketch. "Jacques took everything I said and sketched, and put my thoughts and feelings on paper," said McMorrow. "I was thrilled when I opened up the images of the final renderings. I'm proud to say that the end design was still definitely my car and I can't wait to see it come to fruition on the show floor."She'll get to do just that this Thursday at the Show, as Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda's director of design, sculpts a large lump of clay into the shape of the 2018 3.
photo: Mazda