ArtCenter Students Wow Lincoln With ‘Breathtaking’ Future Car Designs

Students from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena tasked with designing futuristic concept cars for Lincoln are receiving high praise for their innovations, which Ford CEO Jim Farley described as “one of the most breathtaking design executions I’ve seen.”

Four teams of students were tasked last year with designing vehicles envisioning transportation 20 years in the future in an endeavor dubbed “Quiet Flight 2040,” according to ArtCenter and Lincoln.

Lincoln, and its parent company, Ford, commended the student designers for their work this week, releasing a video documenting the project.

Farley said the student projects left him highly impressed.

“To me, this is one of the most breathtaking design executions I’ve seen. It’s really something. It’s just beautiful,” he said. “Congratulations to not just the team, but also all the instructors, to produce something so provocative and meaningful.”

The teams were composed of a wide array of disciplines, including filmmaking, entertainment design, illustration and animation, according to ArtCenter.

Each year, ArtCenter teams with industry partners to offer sponsored projects, said spokesperson Teri Bond. The school’s relationship with Ford and Lincoln goes back decades.

“Ford and Lincoln have been a partner of the college for more than 50 years conducting sponsored projects and also sponsoring scholarships for students primarily in transportation design,” Bond said. “This was a continuation of that ongoing collaboration.”

For the project, Lincoln asked the students to develop vehicle designs incorporating both future technology and their visions of future lifestyles, Bond explained.

“Lincoln asked students to come up with vehicle designs for a very specific type of vehicle and tell the story of the people or consumers that would use that vehicle design and how it would play out in the lives of those ultimate consumers,” she said.

“Our students in illustration, transportation design, film and entertainment design work together as teams to create narrative stories that explore the use of these four different vehicles that had been designed by our students for Lincoln.”

Among the students who took part in the project was film major Benjamin Banholi, who has since graduated.

The real-world experience such projects provide has proven invaluable, Banholi said.

“In these classes, we are working with other disciplines and figuring out workflows, learning how other departments can contribute to our projects. Most importantly, they’re changing the goal of the class, which is that you have to understand what the client wants and find out how to achieve it. It gives you the actual experience of a professional environment,” he said.

“You also have these more real consequences that you have,” Banholi said. “For example, the companies that come for the classes, they usually look to employ students that have notable performances in a given discipline.”

ArtCenter’s mark on the auto industry goes back nearly a century, Bond said.

“There’s a long history of ArtCenter College of Design teaching the leaders of innovation in the automotive industry,” she said. “That goes beyond the cars we drive. Many of our graduates have influenced designs of motorcycles, marine aircraft, commercial transport, personal mobility and public transit design, as well as vehicle interiors. So, it’s a legacy that’s really unprecedented — an unprecedented legacy of influence in the transportation design field from the last 90 years.

“As ArtCenter students, you’re able to leverage that history and become part of the next generation of designers, tackling problems that may not even be articulated yet,” according to Bond. “Students with partners, such as Lincoln, have the incredible opportunity to create the future and participate in the innovation economy.”

Presenting: Quiet Flight 2040. We tasked a group of talented students from @artcenteredu to envision the future of our brand 20+ years from now, from concept vehicles to the world in which these vehicles would live. Learn more about this project, here: https://t.co/wIaT6NPosc pic.twitter.com/gzP50y3eua

— Lincoln (@LincolnMotorCo) June 29, 2021