Tech veteran AOL Inc., now a subsidiary of Verizon Communications earned their reputation as one of the the most recognized brands on the web within the United States. As innovators themselves, AOL has annually recognized the best and most innovative companies in the world with the Technology of the Year Award, presented at Detroit’s Annual Car and Auto Show.
Continuing its history of engaging young minds, AOL worked with a design school to encourage students to submit their designs for this award. Over 500 students competed to have their creative design concept realized. Upon selecting a winning student design, AOL reached out to almost 30 companies to produce the award before identifying Cristaux as their ideal partner.
Making the students vision into reality, the concept predicated around a rotating tire moving forward/spinning, in effect – “burning rubber”. Over 300 hours went into the casting and hand-cutting process to perfect the tire formation. From sketch to tooling all the way to machinery – the Cristaux team leveraged all the technology necessary to bring this award to reality.