BANGLE BIDS BMW BYE

BMW has announced that Director of Design Chris Bangle has resigned from his position at the Munich-based automaker. Mr Bangle will be pursuing other design challenges outside of the motor industry, according to the official word. He has been responsible for the design departments of BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce.

The 53-year-old Bangle will be remembered as the man who changed BMW’s design language forever when he first introduced fans of the blue and white flag to the X5 back in 1999. Later he received mixed reaction for the 2002 7 Series, a car some described as the ugliest in the world while others hailed it as a technological marvel. The 7 Series introduced us to one of the most important car technologies ever, iDrive. Other cars approved by Bangle include the Z4 (both) editions, 3 and 5 Series, as well as the X6, MINI and Rolls Royce Phantom.

Recently BMW designs have toned down the trend started by Bangle, a style he called “flame surfacing” which basically saw convex and concave lines intertwine, mingle and mix all over the body of a car and making it look very sharp. Other designers have also had mixed feelings about him, one even described him as being “deliberately provocative”. Nevertheless a few other manufactures have followed this style of design, albeit in their own unique ways.

I’ve interviewed Bangle right here in South Africa. The one question I remember asking him was “in a world where BMW has been caught and even surpassed by other manufacturers in performance in terms of pure numbers, how will future BMWs differentiate themselves from other premium cars”. He replied by saying “feeling…a BMW will feel different from other cars from moment you see one, to when you get inside it, to when you drive it.”

Adrian van Hooydonk takes over this post. He and Bangle have been working together for 17 years and he was posted as Chief of Design responsible for the BMW brand. Interestingly van Hooydonk was actually the one who designed the 2002 7 Series which is codenamed E65.

Bangle’s work has been utterly influential that in fact he’s possibly the most influential car designer for over 50 years. The designs, while extremely emotional, never lacked vision. I for one will miss Bangle.