PPG ANNOUNCES CCS STUDENT WINNERS
IN FIFTH AUTO GLASS DESIGN COMPETITION

DETROIT, Jan. 12, 2005 – Automotive glass maker PPG Industries challenged students at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies (CCS) to develop concepts for a premium compact vehicle using unique window system styling to capture the buyer’s fancy.  Designs that earned the competition’s top honors show how glass can differentiate a vehicle by creating dramatic exterior styling and the feel of an open interior for a pleasing ride.

            Here are the winners of the PPG Design Challenge Awards for 2004:

• First place:  Quinn Fitzgerald, 26, Rosemount, Minn., a CCS transportation design sophomore.

• Second place:  Indiana Pouilly, 24, Versailles, France, a CCS exchange student and graduate of Strate College, Paris.

• Third place: Jan Jaap Weve, 25, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, a CCS transportation design sophomore.

PPG’s Barry McGee, vice president, automotive OEM glass, announced the winners in the company’s fifth annual auto glass design competition at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The students received glass trophies and scholarships of $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place and $500 for third place.

            During the ceremonies, John Brandmeier, PPG global product marketing manager, automotive OEM glass, thanked J.D. Power and Associates, which defined the design parameters, and Glasstech Inc., the world leader in the manufacturing of glass bending and tempering equipment, which provided the students with information on automotive glass manufacturing, for their support.

Judges were Milt Antonick, adjunct faculty, industrial design department, CCS;

Sung Paik, vehicle lead designer, General Motors Corp.; and Monica Prokopyshen, senior specialist, regulatory affairs, DaimlerChrysler Corp. Seventeen transportation design sophomores submitted concepts and presented their designs before the judges.

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WINNING AUTO GLASS DESIGNS that earned PPG Design Challenge Awards for 2004 by students at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies show unique window systems designed to capture the buyer’s fancy, creating dramatic exterior styling and the feel of an open interior for a pleasing ride.  TOP:  Quinn Fitzgerald, 26, Rosemount, Minn., a CCS sophomore, won first place and a $1,500 scholarship with this design for a three-passenger fuel-cell vehicle having a windshield taller than it is wide and all-glass side doors to afford excellent visibility. CENTER:  Indiana Pouilly, 24, Versailles, France, an exchange student, placed second and received a $1,000 scholarship for this concept vehicle with a dramatic one-piece curved orange glass top comprising the windshield and roof. BOTTOM:  Jan Jaap Weve, 25, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, a CCS sophomore, took third place and a $500 scholarship with this design of a premium compact vehicle having the front driver-side A-pillar and back passenger-side B-pillar replaced with highly reflective glass to enhance driver visibility while maintaining a solid exterior appearance. The annual competition is sponsored by auto glass maker PPG Industries.

First place:  Quinn Fitzgerald

            Fitzgerald’s first-place concept for a three-passenger fuel-cell vehicle features a windshield taller than it is wide and all-glass side doors to create a glass carriage reminiscent of a stagecoach. The passenger compartment takes center stage atop the low-riding body absent a rear trunk to capture the retro styling of a Model T.

            Fitzgerald says his is not a traditional vehicle but one that would be fun for the owner yet practical enough for business. “It’s a vehicle I would like to own,” he says.

            He names his vehicle Coach, capitalizing on the classic handbag brand and play on words to create “a coach fit for Cinderella,” he says.

            With its “expansive” vertical windshield  and “very, very large” side windows, the vehicle affords excellent forward and side visibility.  Passengers sit high, like in an SUV, with the roof 5 feet 6 inches from the ground, but the body is low like a performance car, according to Fitzgerald. The side glass doors operate like those in a minivan but slide forward.  Etched side-door glass affords privacy without restricting visibility. Colored film can be added to the glass and changed seasonally to create different aesthetics.

            “The Coach vehicle puts you on display because there is so much glass,” Fitzgerald says, who was going for the “Paris Hilton aspect.” The Coach name “also gives it credibility and seriousness,” he adds.

            Fitzgerald says he wanted to design a vehicle for a first-time car buyer to “get someone in the marketplace who wasn’t there already.”

            The judges liked his vehicle because it is dramatic, according to Antonick. “It captures your eye and makes a statement,” he says.

Second place:  Indiana Pouilly

            Pouilly’s second-place concept vehicle shows a dramatic one-piece curved glass top that comprises the windshield and roof, affording unencumbered visibility for the driver and a bright interior.

            Pouilly says she designed the vehicle to meet the unique needs of the female target buyer, using lots of glass so that the driver can see out yet installed at a down-sloping angle to provide privacy so that people do not see inside easily.

The side windows are curved on two axes, according to Pouilly, from top to bottom and from front to back.

“The glass is curved like the rest of the car,” Pouilly explains, maintaining the soft lines.

Perhaps most striking is her color choice for the glass: orange. She wanted something unique that would appeal to a female and create a warm ambience.  The orange glass is striking against the pearlescent body.

She wanted her vehicle to be comfortable for the owner, and likens it to a shellfish that envelops the owner inside, “like a pearl inside a shellfish.”

            With the vehicle’s one-piece glass top, Antonick says Pouilly shows “sophisticated handling of glass that can spark the automotive designer’s imagination.”

Third place:  Jan Jaap Weve

            In his third-place winning design for a small sporty car, Weve removes the front A-pillar on the driver’s side and back B-pillar on the passenger side and uses highly reflective colored glass in their place to enhance visibility and, therefore, safety.

            “Inside, you see through the glass,” Weve says. “Outside, it looks like there is a pillar.”

            The glass used in place of the pillars is colored to match body color, giving the illusion of the pillar “to create a sense of solid strength,” Weve explains.

The asymmetrical design affords the driver an unrestricted diagonal view across the front and left side of the vehicle as well as across the passenger side and rear.  Weve notes that parallel parking is easier, and people and objects are easier to see and avoid during left-hand turns.

            According to Antonick, Weve’s design is a pragmatic solution to today’s urban driving patterns, since it gives the driver unrestricted visibility for merging on busy highways.

About the competition 

            To prepare for the contest, the students heard from Suzanne Bartsch, senior account manager, and Amy McFarren, senior manager, automotive consulting, J. D. Power and Associates, who defined the design parameters of creating a premium compact vehicle for Kathy, a professional up-and-coming, sensible young woman.

            To help the students better understand the use of glass in automotive applications, Glasstech’s Jim Schnabel, vice president, product development, and Tom Noe, director, customer service and systems engineering, provided them with information about its forming properties.

The students’ concepts were judged on their creatively fulfilling the needs of the profiled consumer, demonstration of new and unique window systems from both the exterior and interior perspective with due consideration to glass material and processing characteristics, display of unique interior design features, and creative use of color and texture to enhance appeal.

About PPG Industries

            PPG Industries is North America’s largest manufacturer of automotive glass for original-equipment and replacement applications, the world’s leading maker of transportation coatings, and also a global supplier of chemicals and fiber glass. The company has been an official sponsor of the North American International Auto Show for 11 years.

PPG is the only manufacturer supplying glass, coatings, fiber glass and chemicals to the global automotive market, with its products comprising more than 90 percent of a vehicle’s exterior surface.

PPG is positioned to provide unique leadership in the aesthetic and functional development of glazing and coating systems. Based in Pittsburgh, with an Automotive Technical Center in Troy, Mich., as well as other automotive customer technical support facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia, PPG operates 108 manufacturing facilities and equity affiliates in 23 countries. Its well-respected technological innovation is driven by six principal research and development centers.

Sales in 2003 were $8.8 billion.

About the College for Creative Studies

            The College for Creative Studies is one of the world’s leading arts education institutions.  

A private, fully accredited, four-year college, CCS offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in animation and digital media, art education, communication design, crafts, fine arts, illustration, industrial design, interior design and photography. CCS is credited with having one of the world’s most recognized programs in transportation design and for placing more graduates in automotive design than any other school. The college also offers non-credit courses in the visual arts through its Continuing Education programs and opportunities for youth through Community Arts Partnerships.

CCS is located in Detroit’s Cultural Center, where it provides a dynamic learning environment in which students explore issues of art and design, and the culture in which they exist, while preparing for careers in the professional world.

About J.D. Power and Associates

            Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is an ISO 9001-registered global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction. The firm’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually.

About Glasstech

            Perrysburg, Ohio-based Glasstech is the leading world-class innovator and producer of highly productive bending and tempering systems used by glass fabricators supplying the worldwide automotive and architectural safety-glass markets. Glasstech automotive and architectural glass bending and tempering systems have become world standards for the efficient production of high-quality safety-glass products.