Designworks, the BMW Group's innovation studio, celebrates its 50th anniversary. The design and innovation consultancy was instrumental in the design development of the BMW X model range, played a leading role in the design philosophy of the electric BMW i brand and is behind many visionary BMW Group vehicles, such as the GINA Light Visionary Model.
With headquarters in Los Angeles, Munich and Shanghai, and clients from a variety of industries, the studios at the company's headquarters provide important stimuli for global design trends. Designworks was founded in 1972 by American industrial designer Chuck Pelly in a garage in Malibu, California. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the BMW Group since 1995. The 130 creatives who make up the Designworks team consider themselves "Architects of the Future".
The recipe for the BMW Group's success: the independent profit centre completes around half of the almost 300 projects a year for the BMW Group, while the remaining activities consist of partnerships with selected external customers in the areas of digitalisation and mobility. This model offers the BMW Group an outward-looking perspective that is unique in the industry. No other car manufacturer has a design studio that can in any way compare to this one.
Excellent positioning for the future: 'Excellent opportunity to be successful'
The biggest challenge in the coming years will be the transformation of the BMW Group and the entire automotive industry towards electrification, digitalisation and sustainability. Designworks will support this transformation and feed it with powerful, creative and innovative ideas. Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, is optimistic about the future: 'This change is affecting the entire industry. This change is affecting the entire industry. It will take all our creativity and advanced thinking to find the best solutions. The relationship we have with Designworks offers us an excellent opportunity to be successful."
From design configuration to new business opportunities
Designworks is involved in many of the BMW Group's internal tasks - from design formulation and strategy development to identifying new business opportunities. Holger Hampf, Head of Designworks, comments: "We work on solutions for complex ecosystems where: design, mobility and technology intersect. Our job is to present the unexpected approach to a solution. We need to challenge the BMW Group in a positive way, develop ideas and, at best, have answers to questions that have not yet been asked."
While working for various industries, Designworks is involved in the design of seating, aircraft, subways, bicycles, boats, sports equipment, air taxis (eVTOLs), agricultural and forestry machinery, a hyperloop and many more. The transfer of knowledge and creativity also works in the opposite direction: By gaining knowledge from different projects with the parent company, Designworks can open up new design horizons for its external partners. An understanding of premium mobility, brand differentiation under one corporate umbrella and knowledge of the challenges in the innovation process at large companies are strong arguments for external clients to work with the BMW Group subsidiary.
Antennas in the world
Designworks is regarded by the BMW Group as a valuable link to people, their wishes and expectations far beyond the automotive context. As an important driver of innovation, the BMW Group contributes with its creative think tank to many challenging future projects.
To ensure that teams never run out of creative ideas, Designworks fosters a culture of creative friction. By accepting friction as part of the creative process, teams consciously create a creative tension that must be explored, examined and ultimately resolved. This process yields a more refined creative outcome, compared to another that begins harmoniously. Designers are convinced: In a complex world, better and more meaningful solutions for the future emerge from opposing views and positive tensions in the creative process.
Advanced Design : Answers to questions not previously asked
In the BMW Group's Advanced Design department, one of the tasks of Designworks is to raise and explore questions about the future of mobility that have not yet been asked. As such, the teams develop innovative approaches to issues and problems that the BMW Group is not yet actively addressing. Our intention is to challenge - and think about - mobility off the beaten track. "Designworks can do this because we are constantly keeping up with the pulse of the times in three locations," as Adrian van Hooydonk asserts. "Advanced Design gives us the creative energy we need to be truly competitive."
