BMW Overhauls Design Team: Revolutionary Changes Ahead to Revitalize Brand

BMW’s Design Department Gets a Fresh Face-Lift

Big changes are brewing at BMW’s design department, and it’s about time. The brand is bringing in some serious talent from other automakers to shake things up and create a more cohesive design language across its models. Let’s dive into the details.

New Blood at the Helm

Adrian van Hooydonk remains the design director for the entire BMW Group, but Domagoj Dukec is moving on to Rolls-Royce. Dukec’s responsibilities will now be shared by two designers: Maximilian Missoni and Oliver Heilmer.

Missoni comes from Polestar, where he spent six years as the brand’s head of design. Before that, he was at Volvo for almost nine years, leading the brand’s exterior design. He’ll be in charge of BMW’s mid-class and luxury cars, as well as Alpinas, essentially handling everything from the 5 Series and up. This is great news for BMW customers, considering Volvo has made some of the sharpest-looking cars on the market in recent years.

Heilmer Takes the Reins

Heilmer will be a familiar name for BMW fans, as he’s been Mini’s design leader since 2017. Now, he’ll lead BMW’s more entry-level models, such as the 2 Series, 3 Series, X1, and X2.

Color and Material Magic

Most of BMW’s future interiors will be the work of Claudia Braun, who’s been BMW’s head of color and material design. Before that, she held the same position at Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, and Mercedes.

Anders Warming Returns

Anders Warming, who previously worked at BMW under Chris Bangle, is returning to the brand. He was responsible for the E85-generation Z4, one of my favorite modern BMW designs. Warming will now be in charge of BMW’s Advanced Design and Designworks teams, which are responsible for many of BMW’s concept cars and design technologies.

A New Era for BMW Design

So, what does this mean for BMW’s design future? It might mean the end of massive, absurd kidney grilles on BMWs. The controversial details on cars like the BMW X7, M3, 7 Series, and XM all came under Dukec. With BMW’s upcoming Neue Klasse designs showing promise, it has a good team of talented people with a recent history of making good-looking cars to lead the way.

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