Quote:
Originally Posted by GuidoK
Yes, and I think that under his supervision also the x5 was launched and that immediately became the benchmark for the luxurious monocoque SUV with decent road manners. And he launched the z4 (although I heard a story that it was Van Hooijdonk who did most of the designing on that.
The point is that no one man within a car makers design department is the one person who did this or that. It's always a team efford, working under the pressure of management and stockholders.
But Bangle already had quite a reputable reputation before he came to BMW. He did the design on the fiat coupe. None of you Yanks probably have ever seen that IRL but it's considered a design icon in its class, often called the baby ferrari.
Its one of the first 'new edge' cars imho (or what can be somewhat considered as one) introduced about 7 years before that design style became mainstream, even before ford made its concept f90, and later introducing cars like the focus etc, and so many other brands adapting that view (including bmw). Usually new edge is associated with ford, but the fiat coupe may be one of the initiators....
I usually see design at bmw in waves of 2 generations, where the first is quite a revolutionairy design and the second one an evolution on the previous design. Like the e21 was quite the revolution on the 1500 (neue klasse) and the e30 was an evolution on that. Where the e36 was quite the revolution on the e30 and the e46 was the evolution of the e35. And the e90 was the revolution on the e46 and the f30 again an evolution. But who knows if they will continue this alternation of revolution and evolution....
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Chris Bangle influence is undeniable on car designers as stated before, but one question the consumer must ask: is it a good influence? There are not too many car designers around the world and lots of them seem to share the same design language and Chris Bangle design seems to have influence lots of such designers with car surface treatments becoming more and more complex, in my opinion for the worst. One good example in the premium car business. Audi has started from almost nothing to monumental success and one can argue that their simple, yet elegant design language is a big part of their succesS.
Maybe the design world needs to follow what is happening in lifestyle: people going retro and re-discovering simplicity...
About your revolution/evolution theory about BMW designs, I think it's just a coincidence and design revolution are part of a bigger trend in a company that for that instance tries to reinvent itself...
Cheers!