Toyota Material Handling Europe appoints winners of the second Toyota Logistic Design Competition

Toyota Material Handling Europe’s goal is to provide superior transportation solutions, but things can always be taken a step further. Therefore the second edition of the design competition focuses on forklifts with the theme ‘Forklifts. Like you’ve never seen them before’.

 All participants were asked to revamp or revolutionise the look and function of Toyota forklifts. They have a chance to leave a mark on future transportation design and to take a major cash prize home.

This year’s competition has gained about four times more interest since the first edition. The organisation received 565 registrations (compared to 132 in 2014) and eventually 100 submissions were counted.

The well-deserved winner of the design competition is the Flock, designed by the Belgian Fabian Breës, from the University of Antwerp. He designed an efficient product that is both cost- and energy-saving. It is considered the best concept by the jury, as it avoids waste (or ‘muda’ in Japanese; a Toyota way to make a process efficient).

The first runner-up is Josef Cerny from Slovakia with his design called DLS (Drone Logistic System), a futuristic eye catcher that resembles a sports car, and has a high design quality. Third place is for the Finnish students Antti Laukkanen, Sami Laiho and Valjami Räisänen. Together they designed the Toyota KAMU, which portrays a perfect harmony between man and machine and fits very well into the Toyota way of thinking.

“The first edition of our design competition was a great way to get to know young design talents in Europe,” says Magnus Oliveira Andersson, Head of Design. “This turned out to be a success, and this year’s competition has grown both in global interest and in number of entries. We are very pleased with the results and we have chosen the winners based on their interesting concepts and promising designs.” Andersson concludes: “This competition will now be a regular bi-annual event, next scheduled for 2018”.

The contestants in first, second and third place will respectively receive money prizes worth €5000, €3000 and €1500. In addition to this, a special People’s Award of €1500 was chosen through public voting. Josef Cerny, 2nd place finalist, managed to convince the general public as well of his design titled ‘DLS’. All winners will have the opportunity to apply for a six-month paid internship at the Toyota Material Handling Europe Design Center.

The awards are handed over to the winners during the official awards ceremony at the CeMAT Preview press event, which is held on 24 February in Hanover.

The first Toyota Logistic Design Competition was launched in 2013 and carried the theme ‘Tow tractors: industrial machines in need of a makeover’. Students and recent graduates from all over Europe were invited to submit their design proposal. The second edition of the design competition focuses on forklifts with the theme ‘Forklifts. Like you’ve never seen them before’. The Toyota Logistic Design Competition will open again in 2017.