BMW has once again garnered multiple Red Dot design awards for outstanding design in the automotive sector. The new Rolls Royce Ghost won the “Best of the Best” award for exceptional design while the new 5 Series, 5 Series GT and X1 all won outstanding design awards. Also winning were two of BMW Motorrad’s finest, the 1000 RR and the F 800 R.
Official Release: The presentation of the red dot award 2010 once again provides impressive confirmation of the outstanding quality of BMW Group design. Six current models of the BMW Group will receive the internationally renowned award this year, with the new Rolls-Royce Ghost winning the special “red dot: best of the best” award for the very highest level of design quality in the category Automobiles, Transport and Caravans. Other BMW Group models to be awarded the red dot as a mark of outstanding design are the new BMW 5 Series Sedan, the BMW X1 and the motorcycle model BMW F 800 R. There were also honourable mentions from the international jury of experts for the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo and the motorcycle model BMW S 1000 RR. The awards will be presented at the gala held at the Aalto Theatre in Essen on July 5th 2010.
BMW’s Vision concept car continues to rack-up the accolades. The Louis Vuitton Classic Awards jury has given the car its namesake award for 2010. It’s a highly regarded honor and an important one considering the design language seen in the concept will inform BMWs for years to come.
Official Release: The concept car BMW Vision EfficientDynamics – star of the international automobile show IAA in Frankfurt 2009 – has won the Louis Vuitton Classic Award. At an evening gala in BMW Welt the chairman of the Louis Vuitton Classic Awards jury, Christian Philippsen, presented the award to Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design. The prize for the best classic automobile restored true to the original went to Jon Shirley for his Alfa Romeo C2900 B Touring Berlinetta of 1938, which last year won the Trofeo BMW Group at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este by Lake Como.
Our friends over at MWerks recently sat down with BMW’s head of design Adrian van Hooydonk for a one on one interview of sorts. The interview is interesting as it discusses the current design of BMWs and some insight as to what the future may bring. There are some other facts about the man and his passions as well. It is a great read.
Excerpt from the Mwerks Interview:
MW- How will we remember the “van Hooydonk” era?
AvH- It’s too early to say. Plus, my mission is not to create a van Hooydonk era. I work for BMW, and I want to do good BMWs, good Minis, good Rolls-Royces. That’s my goal; history is written later.
MW- Which production car best exemplifies your design ethos?
AvH- I would say the new 5 Series is a good example. We are about to launch it soon; in Geneva we will show the car. The 5 Series is a very important car for BMW. It is bought by people who drive long distances, so they know what it means to drive a BMW; they like sporty driving. The 5 Series needs to express all of that, and it is really the 120% BMW. It’s what the brand stands for.
I think the design team did a good job on that car. We developed it in a way that is more elegant and more sporty at the same time. That is the essence of the BMW brand. Elegance combined with sportiness. It’s quite difficult to develop both of them. Sometimes you cam make a car more elegant but then it becomes less sporty, or you make it more sporty and it becomes less elegant. I think in the 5 Series we were able to do both.
Official Release: Fast Company magazine, the American address to look at when searching for trends in the business of innovation, has ranked BMW Group DesignworksUSA as the world’s “#1 Most Innovative Company in Design,” and among the “Most Innovative Companies for 2010.” This recognition appears in the March 2010 issue of Fast Company magazine, which selects the world’s most innovative companies from twenty-four categories including design, advertising & marketing, mobile, biotechnology, energy, film & television, food, media, healthcare, music, and sports. As an honoree DesignworksUSA stands shoulder-to-shoulder with both rising newcomers and industry legends such as Disney, ESPN, First Solar, Facebook, GE, Google, HP, Novartis, Spotify, and Hulu.
It seemed plausible at the time of release but now we’re starting to see some real confirmation that BMW will be going ahead with production of the Vision concept car that debuted in Frankfurt. The car was not only a concept in regards to design but also drivetrain. Sources told us at the time that BMW was actually creating a drive-able 3 cylinder diesel hybrid that did produce the numbers given at the time of release. Typically an automaker only goes to that kind of expense when there is a real chance of production on the horizon. That’s where we pick up the story from Insideline. Here’s an excerpt from their report:
Our executive source goes on to say that total volume is being debated, but that it will fall between 5,000 and 10,000 units. The prototype’s powertrain and basic sub-3,000-pound assembly will remain intact, but, says the source, “there will be less of the synthetic glass and more solid structure added to the final design.” Uh-oh. We know why these alterations are needed, but does this mean it’s going to migrate toward being a sort of sleek Toyota Prius? Let’s hope not.
When we asked if this could finally be BMW’s second true production supercar after the Giugiaro M1, the response was a firm “quite probably.” So maybe our Prius/Honda Insight fears are overreaching. It’d be nice to maintain that 0.22 drag coefficient and the hellacious looks.
IL went on to mention that a real world test in the south of France would be happening for a few publications later this summer. Oh and those Prius fears? Obviously those of us who are close to BMW and it’s products know better. Based on what we’ve been told this car will redefine the term hybrid.
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.’
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Sections: Design Mar 19th, 2010 No Comments 
