Bartek Sikorski

With its successful performance at the red dot award 2008, BMW Group continues its career of excellence in pioneering design. This year, a total of six members of the BMW Group won the internationally acclaimed label. Two of them, the BMW 3 Series Convertible and the BMW G 450 X motorcycle also won awards in the special category “red dot: best of the best” for outstanding design achievements in the automotive, transport and caravan segment. The trophies will be presented on 23 June, 2008 on occasion of the awards ceremony at the Aalto Theatre in Essen/Germany.

Other finalists for the red dot awards 2008 were the BMW X5, the BMW 1 Series Coupe, the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe and the BMW HP2 Sport motorcycle. BMW Group globally operating subsidiary BMW Group DesignworksUSA also impressed the high-profile members of the jury. The design studio won a red dot award for the interior design of the Embraer MSJ business jet and the design of the Zeydon Z60 luxury yacht.
For the first time in the history of the red dot awards, the jury will provide “honorable mentions” during this year’s ceremony. With these honorable mentions, the jury will pay special attention to products that have clearly set themselves apart from the competition by their particularly successful design solutions. cording to the jury, three current BMW Group models deserve this special recognition: the BMW M3 Coupe, the MINI Clubman and the BMW F 800 GS motorcycle.

Launched in 1955, the red dot award has become established as one of the most important design awards in the world. It recognizes achievements in numerous categories such as automotive, architecture, domestic, consumer electronics, fashion, life science and medicine. This year, the jury considered the design of 3,203 products from all over the world. A total of 600 products won the red dot Label. Thirty red dot awards are granted to contenders in the automotive, transport and caravan category, three of which are also presented with the “best of the best” award for particularly pioneering design. Two of these top three are current members of the BMW Group family: the BMW 3 Series Convertible, which reinterprets the classic line flow of an open BMW 3 Series by combining it with a retractable hardtop, and the BMW G 450 X motorcycle, a no-nonsense sports enduro that openly displays it zest for contest.

The repeated great success of BMW Group with the red dot awards again confirms that outstanding design quality will be rewarded with international recognition. Last year,BMW Group was honored for its ongoing, innovative design achievement: as a highlight of the gala, BMW Group was presented with the title “Design Team of the Year”. In 2007, BMW Group and BMW Group DesignworksUSA won a total of eight red dot awards for product design.

The fact that all models of all brands regularly contribute to the success of BMW Group during highly acclaimed design competitions such as the red dot award confirms the strength of BMW Group Design’s unusual concept that combines a common design philosophy with brand-specific design strategies. The brand-specific design strategies are based on the philosophy of BMW Group. The claim to premium substance lies at the heart of this philosophy. In all three brands, this claim comes with a guarantee of aesthetic quality. This philosophy demands respect for every individual brand, its idiosyncrasies, specific design characteristics and last, but not least, its history. Accordingly, the core objective of any BMW Group Design team consists of tracking down the individual character of a brand and its model, to establish a perfect and suitable equilibrium between factors that affect the overall design such as dynamism, technology, driving experience, enthusiasm, comfort, panache, elegance and innovative force and find the right expression in its design.

The common characteristics that are encouraged and maintained by BMW Group Design are not obvious at first glance, as every single one of the three brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce has their own, strong identity with clear values and a unique image. Only an intense study of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce and even BMW motorcycle design reveals the congruities. The development of models for the three brands under one roof generates powerful and positive synergies. This constellation also provides fertile ground for the brand design, which boosts the strong character of the individual brands.

With its cross-brand design philosophy, BMW Group Design maintains strategies that underline the unifying personality of all three brands while also boosting the powerful, unique personality of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce models. On a third level, each of these three brands express new, creative ideas within the cross-brand philosophy, which is the benefit of the extraordinary collective innovative strength of BMW Group. Dr. Klaus Draeger, Head of BMW Group’s Development and Purchasing division to which BMW Group Design reports, explains: “When we introduced a new concept, which would unite all our different brand design studios in the culture of BMW Group Design, we clearly made the right decision. Expressing the fact that all our products belong to the family of BMW Group and ensuring the efficient cooperation with all process partners while boosting the unique personality of the individual brand can only be achieved when all team members are working closely together.”
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