BMW Grants a Look into BMW and Mini Design

BMW has recently granted a look into how it designs BMW and Mini cars, the elements it feels has to be in every car and the people who actually put pen to paper. 

All design at BMW starts and ends with Head of Design for BMW Group Adrian van Hooydonk. His team starts by describing verbally the attributes that the car must have. From there designers begin creating the first sketches and models for the future car. When the design has been unified, the car is drawn 1:1 on a grid with all of its technical and structural parts being shown. The major lines of the car are built up with tape on this drawing to accentuate them for the eye, but also allow the design to still be altered. From this point, the car is CAD and 3D modeled. 

After agreeing on a general design, a competition begins among the various teams working on the car. Each interior and exterior design team develops different ideas that are rendered in clay models. Teams can then choose to cover their clay models in a special foil that appears like paint to get an even more accurate idea of what the vehicle would actually look like. The various designs are evaluated by the Board of Management who eventually narrow them down to a final, winning design. The final design of a future BMW is generally certain about three years before the car goes into production. 

After the final design has been selected, it is handed over to the Detail Design team. This team works with engineers and manufacturing specialists to exactly define each part of the car down to the .01mm. These specifications are fed into CAD systems to create a technical reference model.

“In the design process I aim to coax the maximum creativity from my team. That is why I keep the briefings as open as possible. Every single designer is invited to deliver their own take on the brand or the relevant project, in words and images. My job is then to select the best of the numerous opinions and proposals. For me that’s one of the most exciting moments in the entire design process,” said van Hooydonk

Perhaps the most interesting part is what elements BMW thinks defines its brand in terms of aesthetics. At the front the most iconic element of any BMW is the double kidney grill that was first used in 1933. Since 1935 nearly every BMW made has somehow incorporated this feature, and even in the modern era the kidney grill defines it cars. Surprisingly, BMW says that today having headlights that have a flat edge across the top is also important for the front of its cars. When you think back on its older models, though, circular headlights are really the icon. It has only been quite recently that BMW has smoothed away the circular headlights into more of an oval, but the circular lenses underneath still carry the design forward. 

Another one of the vital elements of BMW design is the Hofmeister kink located on the rear-most pillar where the pillar kicks out in the opposite direction as it joins the window. The name comes from the first design director for BMW and was implemented in 1961. BMW also claims that the chrome window surrounds and black B-pillar on its cars are another iconic design touch. It is meant to evoke the thought of classic cars and adds to the upscale demeanor of the brand. 

In terms of Mini, BMW defines the car's design by its wide, bull dog front with the wheels at the extreme corners. The front should be dominated with elliptical headlights. While at the side, the car should be wedge-shaped with the beltline rising to the rear hatch. It must have chrome door handles. The roof should appear to be just resting on top of the car so that it looks like the top part of the car is wrapped in glass. The rear should have vertically stacked tail lights with circular elements integrated into them. These circles echo the headlights and the large speedometer. 

BMW is moving into a brand new design direction with the new i-series of vehicles led by designer Benoit Jacob. 

Jacob came to automotive design in a very unlikely way. Without going to college, he submitted his portfolio to Renault who immediately hired him for a year. He then studied for a year at the Art Center College for Design in Vevey, Switzerland, and went back to Renault. He then moved to BMW, and he his now the head of i-design.

The i-series is meant to appear like the modern sibling to BMW. It carries iconic BMW features like the kidney grill, while attempting to create its own design themes. According to BMW, the i-series is meant to be “clean,” “clever” and be the “next premium.” While there should be high standards in terms of luxury, the cars should also be mindful of the environment. To do this BMW is using sustainable materials on the interior and exterior.

Even outside of design, it seems like BMW is putting more of an emphasis on the environment on its newest cars. It is transitioning from using mostly six-cylinder engines to more turbocharged four-cylinders, and its latest sports models have been using diesels. It will be curious to see if this is a fad for the brand or whether it will continue.