Car Magazine Interviews Chris Bangle

Car Magazine caught up with BMW’s former design chief at his Italian Villa where the master of flame surfacing has been “drinkin’ some wine, eatin’ some cheese, catchin’ some rays” in his own words. But what about design, cars and of course BMW? Here’s an excerpt:

Bangle is critical of this generation of car designers and their fear of challenging ‘brand holiness’, as he calls it. He laments that too many car companies just repeat what’s been done before. ‘You can always argue that the generation before didn’t have the constraints that we have, but that’s crap. The worst thing you can do is to think design is a rolling wheel fixed on a track of inevitability and you can’t move it left or right.’

‘I feel incredibly motivated to find out how design can overturn this horror of a world,’ Bangle tells CAR. ‘Sustainability isn’t just defined by the physical property of the resources involved. It is about creating a different type of relationship between design, design’s outcome, the product and the people who use and enjoy it.’

Bangle seems content with where he left BMW design wise and seems to go out of his way to mention that there are no ill feelings:

Bangle refuses to be critical of BMW. ‘There are no deathbed revelations from me there. If anything, we showed how you can work with brand inertia and create newness,’ he says. Then he adds with a smile: ‘But of course each generation has to find its own way.’

+ Car Interviews Chris Bangle / Car Magazine