2004 Michelin Challenge Design(TM) Convenes Jury

Focus on China Brings Together Panel of International Designers and Educators To Judge Design Entries for Display at 2004 North American International Auto Show

DETROIT, July 9 -- Michelin Challenge Design(TM) has grown since its inception in 2001 and that means the international jury gathering in Detroit next week will have a challenge of their own reviewing entries vying to be displayed in the Michelin exhibit at the 2004 North American International Auto Show.

Michelin received more than 100 entries this year for the 2004 Michelin Challenge Design. Designers from around the globe have been challenged to create vehicles that can successfully answer the accelerating demands for the emerging Chinese automotive market. The distinguished panel of international designers and educators will gather in Detroit July 14-15 to review the entries.

This year's jury was selected from an international body of professional transportation designers and educators possessing significant experience in design evaluation and selection from large bodies of design work. They are:

   -- Dick Ruzzin, returns as the chairman of the Michelin Challenge Design
      jury. Now based in Detroit, Ruzzin had been the design director for
      General Motors Europe before he retired in 1998. Ruzzin spent 36
      years at GM participating in and directing the creative design
      development of many General Motors vehicles on five continents: North
      America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. Ruzzin has
      participated in numerous design projects and contributes to ID
      Magazine and cardesignnews.com .
   -- Ronald Ihrig is founder of Ihrig Design in Worfelden, Germany. He
      returns as a juror this year. Ihrig founded the company in 1984 to
      provide clients design consulting and evaluation. Clients have
      included 3M, abt, Adam Opel AG, Alldos Gmbh, Airline-Bohnen&Kern
      GmbH, Blaupunkt Bosch Group, Ista, Mitsubishi MRDE, Michael Conrad &
      Leo Burnett, Silverhaze, VIA International and VW-Votex. He began his
      design career in 1979 with GM-Adam Opel AG in Ruesselsheim, Germany.
      Ihrig earned an industrial design degree from the University of
      Applied Sciences in Darmstadt Germany and degrees in Philosophy,
      German and Politics from the Technical University of Darmstadt.
   -- Stewart Reed also returns as a juror this year. He is founder of
      Stewart Reed Design in Holland, Mich. U.S.A., a company he formed in
      1994 to consult with the automotive and consumer manufacturing
      industries. Reed has been active in design since graduating from the
      Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., in 1969. He began
      with Meyers Manx and designed and developed the Manx SR. Reed spent
      nine years at Chrysler Corporation's advanced design department; six
      years as the chief designer of Toyota's California advanced design
      studio; and eight years with Prince Corporation, now part of Johnson
      Controls. He has taught transportation design courses at the Art
      Center College of Design and completed numerous works for clients
      including Robert Lutz's reintroduction of the Cunningham C7 in 2001,
      which Reed designed.
   -- Shouzhi Wang has been a professor of design theories, modern design
      history and Far East Asian studies at the Art Center College of
      Design in Pasadena, Calif. since 1988. He also is one of the
      authorities of design history and theories in China. Wang finished
      his graduate study at Wuhan University in Wuhan, China in 1982. He
      taught design history at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art in the early
      1980s, where he was appointed as the dean for the School of Design in
      1985. He helped to start China's modern design education in this
      period. Wang also spent a year as an exchange scholar at West Chester
      University in Pennsylvania in 1987. Wang has authored numerous books
      on design in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Wang also is an
      honorary professor of Tsinghua University, the Central Academy of
      Fine Art, Shanghai University and many Chinese design and art
      institutions. He also works as the chief adviser to China's
      Industrial Design Association, China's Advertising Association and
      China's Graphic Design Association.
   -- Chao-hsi Wu is professor of Industrial Design at Purdue University in
      West Lafayette, Indiana. He's been teaching at Purdue since 1989. He
      earned a Master of Arts in Industrial Design from Wayne State
      University in Detroit, Mich. in 1982, a Bachelor of Industrial Design
      from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1968 and a Bachelor
      of Arts in English Literature in 1961 from Tunghai University in
      Taichung, Taiwan, ROC. In addition to his work at Purdue, Wu has been
      a visiting professor to Beijing University and the Central Academy of
      Art and Design in Beijing as well as Tunghai University in Taiwan.
      From 1968 until 1984 Wu worked as a vehicle designer for General
      Motors Corporation in Warren, Mich. and his involvement in the 1984
      Chevrolet Corvette helped the vehicle win the 1983 Industrial
      Designers' Society of America (IDSA) Automotive Design Award.
   -- Zuo Yuan is the program coordinator for the Massachusetts College of
      Art in Beijing, a joint venture established between the Massachusetts
      College of Art in Boston, Mass., and Tsinghua University in Beijing,
      China. He had previously served as an adjunct professor of 2-
      dimensional fine art in the program for continuing education at the
      Massachusetts College of Art. From 1992 until this day Yuan serves as
      a design consultant and has contributed to numerous statues and
      sculptures in Russia and China. His work has been shown at numerous
      exhibitions throughout the United States. Yuan earned both a masters
      and bachelor degrees in fine arts from the Massachusetts College of
      Art. He also attended the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and
      the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing as part of his
      undergraduate study.

The jury will review more than 100 design entries received from individuals, companies and students representing 27 countries. These design solutions have been submitted as either computer generated drawings, two- dimensional drawings or models. Selected entries will be displayed in the Michelin exhibit at the 2004 North American International Auto Show in January. The selected entries will be announced this August.

The Michelin Challenge Design was established in 2001 as a way to bring forward and display significant design work that would not normally have the opportunity to be displayed at a major, international auto show.

For complete information on Michelin Challenge Design, including specific entry requirements, entry process, rules and theme details, visit www.michelinchallengedesign.com .

Michelin manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy-duty trucks and the space shuttle. The company also publishes travel guides, maps and atlases covering Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America ( www.michelin.com ) employs 24,640 and operates 22 plants in 18 locations.