BMW is making big changes in its design department. Depending on how you feel about the brand’s recent design choices, that could be a very good thing—especially since the Bavarians are getting some very talented help from other automakers. However, the biggest change happens near the top. While Adrian van Hooydonk remains the design director for the entire BMW Group—which includes BMW, Rolls-Royce, and Mini—BMW’s head of design Domagoj Dukec is moving over to Rolls-Royce.
Dukec’s previous responsibilities will now be shared by two people: Maximilian Missoni and Oliver Heilmer. Missoni comes from Polestar, where he spent the last 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’s going to be in charge of BMW’s mid-class and luxury cars, as well as Alpinas. Essentially, Missoni will handle everything from the 5 Series and up. Considering that Volvo has made some of the sharpest-looking cars on the market in recent years, this is likely great news for BMW customers.
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.
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.
Another interesting hire, or should I say re-hire, is the return of Anders Warming, who steps aside as Rolls-Royce’s design director. Warming was previously part of the BMW design team under Chris Bangle and was responsible for the E85-generation Z4, one of my favorite modern BMW designs. Then he did his own thing with his own firm before going to Rolls-Royce. Now, Warming will be in charge of BMW’s Advanced Design and Designworks teams, which are responsible for many of BMW’s concept cars and design technologies.
Let me put a fine point on all this info: 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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