Inspiring Designer

Watching the interview with former BMW Design Director Chris Bangle in Objectified definitely clarified his way of designing cars. Highly controversial, heavily critiqued, and definitely successful, Bangle and his designs revolutionized BMW's brand.

To paraphrase his Objectified interview, Bangle broke down car design as "taking a hunk of metal, glass & plastic and shaping it into something beautiful." I like how he simplified it into what car manufacturing and design physically is- making a pretty shape out of materials.

He was known for his "flame-surfacing" technique, meaning he designed a car's surfaces to reflect light in a dancing flame pattern when in motion. This is the only instance where I've read someone designing car aesthetics with the vehicle's primary function-- driving-- in mind. When you think about it, all the really "cool" renderings of cars are of some uber-reflective thing one inch off the ground in a desert with a perfect blue sky reflecting a perfect image on its perfectly polished chrome wheels. How often do you see that?

I find Bangle inspiring because he is a highly successful, highly controversial designer who, after he broke down car design to the basics, then infused it with something more: an emotional experience. "A car is your avatar, you choose it (usually) because it tells the outside world something about you."

-Flex