Does New Blood at BMW Styling Houses Signal New Styling Approaches?

Since August 1, BMW has cleaned house a bit and has hired some new talent in its design houses. It's obviously too early to tell if this signals a MAJOR shift in design focus for the brand - which (with Bangle) saw major shifts in the past intended to shake up BMW's styling (again, with varying success, one can argue.)

But these relatively young designers seem to have the right background - and perhaps the "right stuff" - to send the brand at least a jolt and perhaps bring some really beautiful cars to market.

Auto Styling News wishes them the best of luck!

The new talent includes:

Adrian van Hooydonk, who runs BMW Group Design, which embraces all the Group’s brands, and is thus responsible for design at BMW, BMW i, BMW Motorrad and MINI, as well as Rolls-Royce. The various design studios, Advanced Design, design research, design strategy and DesignworksUSA all fall within his jurisdiction.

BMW Design
In the BMW Design Team led by Karim Habib, Domagoj Dukec has taken over as head of Exterior Design, Oliver Heilmer as head of Interior Design and Martina Starke as head of Colour and Material Design.

Domagoj Dukec, 38, the new head of Exterior Design, was born in Frankfurt and has worked in the Exterior Design BMW Automobiles team since 2010. He was responsible for designing the Concept Active Tourer.

Oliver Heilmer, 39, replaces Marc Girard as head of Interior Design. The Munich native has been part of the Interior Design BMW Automobiles team since 2000 and was responsible for the design of the BMW 5 Series, among other assignments. Marc Girard, 43, will assume management of Automobile Design at DesignworksUSA, a 100% subsidiary of the BMW Group.

Martina Starke, 42, is head of Colour and Material Design. The qualified textile designer joined the BMW Group in 2001 and her responsibilities have included Colour and Material Design for the larger series cars as well as for BMW Individual.
 
MINI Design
The MINI Design team led by Anders Warming welcomed Christopher Weil, 38, as its new head of Exterior Design. A Bavarian by birth, he has worked as a designer for the BMW Group since 2000, most recently for Automotive Design at BMW Group DesignworksUSA. Marcus Syring, 49, leaves his post as head of Exterior Design to join Rolls-Royce. Oliver Sieghart remains responsible for Interior Design and Annette Baumeister for Colour and Material Design.

“As head of BMW Group Design I’m very proud of the wealth of talent in my team.  I am convinced that through this restructuring we have given a significant boost to design in the individual brand studios and will continue to shape the future of BMW Group Design with success,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design.