Submitted your designs for the Proton Design Competition 2014, which closed on August 18? Proton is currently shortlisting the submissions, both postal and online.

In total, the company has received 337 entries from both categories. Category 1, open to entrants aged 13 to 17 years old, contained 158 submissions, while Category 2, open to those aged 18 to 25 years old, received 179 submissions.

To recap, budding designers were asked to design a Proton city car for the year 2020. Entrants were required to submit coloured renderings depicting the 3/4 front, side and 3/4 rear views of their design, while those falling into Category 2 were also required to produce an additional coloured interior rendering.

In addition, entrants had to submit a written proposal detailing their car's design concept, unique selling proposition and proposed powertrain system. Given that this is first and foremost a design competition, submissions were naturally judged on their aesthetics and presentation, but specific emphasis has also been given to the originality and innovation of the designs.

Two rounds of shortlisting were held on September 12 and 15, whittling the entries down to 58 in total – 36 for Category 1 and 22 for Category 2. Another round will see the top 10 emerge from each category before the winning entries are finalised.

The judging panel included senior management from group communications, group marketing, branding and motorsports as well as product strategy. Also present were UiTM's senior lecturer of industrial design Dr. Shahriman Zainal Abidin as well as Proton's chief designer Azlan Othman. Anthony Lim and I were also on hand as representatives of paultan.org, the official media partner of the competition.

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The submissions we have reviewed were genuinely interesting, running the gamut from simple little runabouts to more audacious ideas such as flying cars and submersibles. The quality of the best of the entries was also very impressive.

"Some of the submissions are quite outstanding, coming from the young and inexperienced age groups. This meets our objective in unearthing young potential talents so that we could provide the right exposure for them," said Proton CEO Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah. "We understand that more people of the older age groups are also interested to participate and we shall consider this in the future."

These entrants are in the running to receive MacBooks and cash prizes, while the winner in Category 2 also stands a chance to secure an internship with the Proton design team.