By Kim Da-ye
Kia Motors has won multiple design awards from the German Design Council, the automaker announced Wednesday.
The nation’s second-largest automaker won the Best of Best Award in the brand design category while three of its models, the K5 sedan, the Sportage R sports utility vehicle (SUV) and the UB, small vehicle known as the Rio, were selected as winners in the exterior category.
The German Design Council hosts the Automotive Brand Contest, an international design contest, this year for the first time, with the perspective of a “growing demand for a sector competition for holistic brand design and successful brand communication.”
The council chooses 15 winners in each of the contest categories including exterior, interior, accessories and tuning, infotainment, brand design, campaign, audiovisual and digital and lifestyle. One winning product per category is declared the Best of Best.
For the brand design category, the jury looked at strategies and identity in corporate design.
The award ceremony is scheduled to be held on the press day of the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
“It is an honor to win the best award in the category of brand design, outperforming prominent brands in Germany, the home of automobiles,” a Kia Motor official said in a statement.
“We will keep pursuing the innovative design strategy to boost the Kia brand with distinctively designed cars including the K5 and Sportage R.”
Kia Motors’ K5, named the Optima abroad, and Sportage R have already won several international design awards.
In March, both vehicles won honors at the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2011 held in Germany. They had won the 2011 International Forum Design Award, the 2010 Good Design Award in the U.S. and the 2010 Good Design Award in Korea.
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