MG wins GOLD at London design awards

• MG3 Design Concept awarded Gold at London Design Awards
• Created by young British MG designer Louise Thorburn
• Automotive personalisation inspired by British textile, fashion and jewellery design
• Concept also previews three new MG3 exterior personalisation packs

MG scooped the Gold award in the Product Design Concept category for its MG3 Design Concept. The award was announced by Mark Bergin, Founder and CEO of design100 at the prestigious London Design Awards held at the Truman Brewery in London. 

MG exhibited a concept for future personalisation of its successful new MG3 supermini at Superbrands, part of the London Design Festival, where more than 280 companies from 29 countries showcased their design talent. The Design Concept was created by 24 year-old Louise Thorburn, Colour and Trim designer at MG and drew inspiration from her degree dissertation in textile design for a future in which we would develop second skins as body adornment. This vision was then translated into an automotive context on the MG3.

Alongside the Design Concept, MG also launched three new exterior personalisation packs for the MG3, created by the Louise and her colleagues in the UK design centre, inspired by the latest trends in British fashion. They are now on sale as part of the new MG3 collection.

Speaking at the event, Louise said: “I am delighted to have had the opportunity with MG to develop from my graduate collection in such a unique way, exploring my vision of the future of automotive personalisation. People are increasingly looking to personalise small cars like the MG3 to match their personality, in the same way as they do with their home or fashion style. Having looked at how jewellery and fashion is used as a means of self expression, I wanted translate this theme in an automotive context.”

Martin Uhlarik, head of the UK Design Centre, said: “Vehicle personalisation has traditionally been a male dominated process, but with women often accounting for more than half of the buyers for products in this sector, we wanted to explore the future from a female perspective.

“Louise was given free reign in this project, without the influence of the male designers, to show how she sees personalisation developing. The result is something really quite different from historical designs and we are delighted at the reaction we have had to the concept, the process and the new designs that have just gone on sale.”

The latest collection of MG3 personalisation graphics, includes the three new designs previewed at Superbrands, called Boutique, Candy and Waves. These new additions join the existing range of more than one million options currently available in the MG3 range, starting from just £39.00 fitted.

MG3 personalisation options have already been phenomenally successful for the Midland’s based manufacturer since the supermini’s launch last year and the range now offers an even wider range of choices. All options can been seen on the MG3 configurator at www.mg.co.uk/mg3/configurator

Launched in September 2013, the MG3 benefits from an ultra low 4E insurance group, strong residuals of up to 61 per cent, exceptional interior and boot space, class leading chassis and driving dynamics and high levels of equipment on all specifications as standard. There are also more than one million personalisation options as well as exceptional value for money aftercare packages to choose from. The MG3 is priced from only £8,399 to £9,999, or on PCP with zero percent deposit or from only £99 a month.

The MG3 was recently selected by Autocar as one of its Best 50 Cars on Sale Today, ranking alongside exotic models from the likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche. Leading motoring guru Andrew Frankel ranked the MG3 ahead of cars such as the Audit TT and Vauxhall VXR8 GTS.

Since it was launched the MG3 has played a key role in the incredible sales success of MG, which is now Britain’s fastest growing brand. Official figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that MG sales have increased by 472 per cent so far this year. The industry average is 9.4 per cent.