What's all this about?

Polestar has announced the winners of its first-ever annual Design Contest. The chosen sketches and ideas, which will now commence a round-the-world tour of Polestar Spaces in various territories, were centred on a vision of future mobility with a theme of 'purity'. Each entrant was asked to present a new Polestar product that exhibited the cleanest of design and which was future-gazing at the company's output in 2040 - and, crucially, said design did not need to be a car. Hence why, among the winners, there was a futuristic airship that could be used for Arctic exploration and a fully electric yacht, too.

OK, can we talk about the winning designs?

Course we can. Curiously, the overall winner was indeed someone who had drawn a car of the future. Konrad Cholewka, from Poland, came up with the Polestar MMXL, which is an autonomous pod with a 'flexible interior design, pure in its combination of two geometric shapes'. Which were a rectangle and circle, in case you're wondering. The student category was taken by India's Siddhesh Bhogale, who was the brains behind the Polestar 40 airship and its 21st century aviation approach. And then there was an honourable mention for Arthur Martins, from Brazil, who came up with the 'Spänning' zero-emissions yacht; offering an alternative to conventional watercraft 20 years hence, in much the same way Polestar offers an alternative to conventional road-going machines in the present day.

Polestar says it received hundreds of entries from an international mix of aspirant designers, with ideas from in from India, South Korea, Japan, Germany, the USA, Sweden, Brazil, Poland and China. Entrants had to first submit sketches, which were assessed by Polestar's design department. A shortlist of 13 finalists were then invited to receive remote coaching and guidance from Juan-Pablo Bernal, the senior design manager for Polestar, and Maximilian Missoni, Polestar's head of Design, giving them additional expert advice and insight into the world of automotive design. The final phase then involved the shortlisted finalists creating fully realised digital models of their concept visions, with these renderings judged by the designer panel.

Sounds neat. Anything else to add?

Perhaps a few words from the two dignitaries. Firstly, Mr Bernal said of the entries that came in: "We received an overwhelming amount of enthusiastic attention from inspired designers all over the world. The designers produced very high-quality material, and we saw a very consistent expression of the Polestar design language."

And Mr Missoni added: "It was both inspirational and humbling to interact with so much emerging and experienced talent. The designs we saw evolve from creative sketches to 3D models show that the design world is a melting pot of exceptional individuals. We look forward to seeing these designers moving on to great things during their promising careers."

The winning designs will now be made into 1:5 scale models and shown in a virtual exhibition, before beginning a global tour in Polestar's launch markets of China, Europe and North America.