German Car Zone

The Shape Of Things To Come: Controversial auto designer Chris Bangle has only just begun his quest to change the world

By Gavin Green
Photography by the author
Motor Trend, January 2006



A wild-eyed revolutionary destroying one of Europe's blue-chip luxury brands? The most influential automotive designer of the early 21st century? Passions run high whenever BMW's design chief is the topic of discussion. He might have been born and raised in the Midwest, but with Bangle there is, it seems, no middle ground.


Love or loathe his work, Bangle's impact on auto design has been profound. No other designer, not even legendary GM design chief Harley Earl, has so rapidly become a part of the industry lexicon. To "bangle" a design is now an auto-industry verb for ruining it. Auto writers use "Bangle butt" to describe a tail with an extra layer of metal on the trunk (think new Mercedes S-Class). Bangle, some rivals will remind you, is only one letter away from "bungle."


Web sites petitioning for Bangle's dismissal continue to attract support, other designers still treat him rather as the grands artistes of the Academie des beaux-arts treated the young Manet, and most auto writers still regard Bangle as the antichrist of car couture. But Bangle BMWs sell. And some critics are starting to wonder whether maybe, just maybe, this intense 47-year-old, who once considered becoming a Methodist minister before studying at the renowned Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, might be onto something.


J Mays, Ford's global design guru, is no fan, but he admits Bangle has been significant in reshaping modern cars. Martin Smith--former GM Europe design chief and now head of design for Ford of Europe--talks of him as an instigator of the trend toward "surface entertainment" in cars. Take a look at the complex forms and creases on the panels of his Frankfurt show-stopping Iosis concept--said to be the blueprint for Ford's future European design direction--to see why Smith wholeheartedly buys into that idea.


"He's certainly the most talked about [designer]," says Patrick Le Quement, design boss of Renault and probably the world's most admired car designer. "His designs have a great deal of presence, and they're well proportioned. He's been highly influential. My only concern is his use of concave surfaces: They're hollow shapes and lack that tightly muscled look I feel helps design."


Before Bangle, premium cars--following the leads of Mercedes-Benz and more recently Audi--were organic, clean, simple designs. Modern cars are fussier, busier, multi-angled, more sharply edged. That's the Bangle influence. Bangle calls it "visual energy." He's to automotive visual energy what Picasso was to cubism or Gropius was to Bauhaus.


"A car designer is really a sculptor," says Bangle. "Cars are the sculptures of our everyday lives. We at BMW do not build cars as consumer objects, just to drive from A to B. We build mobile works of art." He says he draws his influences from the world around him: "From everything. From airplanes, to boats, to cathedrals...but we try not to be too influenced by other cars."

When Christopher Edward Bangle was given the top design job at BMW in 1992, it surprised more than a few auto- industry insiders. After graduating from Art Center in the 1980s, Bangle worked for GM's Opel division in Germany and headed Fiat's design facility in Turin, Italy. But he'd only been credited with one complete car, the curiously angular Fiat Coupe, when he moved to Munich. No one knew what to expect.


BMW was then an engineering-dominated company, as German auto firms invariably were. Design had an insignificant voice. Cars were tasteful, elegant, and similar in style despite size. Bangle was given license to change by managers who knew a bold step was needed--and change he did. Of BMW's rich design DNA, only three styling genes were preserved: the twin-kidney grille, the quad headlamps (although lens shapes have been revolutionized), and the Hofmeister kink--the hook in the side windows at the rear pillars, named after the BMW design director who first drew it in 1961, Wilhelm Hofmeister.


The launch of the E65 7 Series in 2001 confirmed the radical change in design direction hinted at in concept cars like the muscular Z9 coupe and the oddly asymmetrical X3 coupe.


It was time, insists Bangle, for a change. "The old 7 Series, the E38, was an elegant car, an evolution of the classic BMW look. But it wasn't penetrating the luxury market as we desired. It just didn't have the presence to be noticed. At the same time, cars were screaming for change. They were changing--new more powerful motors, way more technology, more speed--they were fundamentally different cars. Put me in one more time, and I ain't gonna fit, they were almost saying to the designers. Factor in the changing demographics. We knew China and Asia as a whole would be the big growth markets. Our competitors were dominating in these countries in the luxury market. So we needed to do something new. Whenever you move ahead, you leave some people behind."


But has the subsequent criticism--of the 7 Series, the 5 Series, the Z4 (which brilliant industrial designer and car enthusiast Marc Newson once described as having been designed with a machete), the X3, and the 1 Series--hurt? "A lot of criticism came from reactionary elements who weren't expecting change, especially such a pronounced change, and from such a completely unexpected quarter--BMW. They forgot BMW was once renowned for its design bravery. I think perhaps we at BMW had forgotten that, too.


"Yes, the press--or elements of it--were vicious. But the only thing that bothered me was when it reached my family, and it hurt them. I have a 17-year-old son, who was 13 at the time, and he was affected by the criticism. It hurt him. You need to separate the professional from the private; you need to draw the line. In fact, it probably brought us closer as a family."


Although his name is irrevocably linked to them, Bangle takes little credit for specific Bangle-era vehicles, always citing the name of the chief designer responsible. For the 2001 7 Series, it was one of his proteges, Dutchman Adrian van Hooydonk, who has since been elevated to chief of design for the BMW brand (Bangle continues as head of design for the entire BMW family, including Mini, Rolls-Royce, and motorcycles).


Bangle sees his job as "managing the conflict between corporate pragmatism--the clear need to make money--and artistic passion. My role is to inspire people, to work as an editor and a director of the whole thing, to make sure that if there are issues between ourselves and the board they're resolved as quickly as possible. BMW felt it was time to move, they allowed us to move--we did it together.


"So, yeah, I do feel we've kick-started this industry. It had slept for a while. Now I look around and see other car companies are waking up and starting to do good."


Now that the fuss is dying down and sales of his designs are growing, does Bangle feel vindicated? "You know, my mind is now somewhere else already. I worry that the industry isn't looking far enough forward. We're closing in rapidly at the end of the current paradigm in the evolution of the car, and if this paradigm lasts beyond 2020, I'll be amazed. After that, cars, as we understand them now, will be different animals.


"We as an industry know change is happening, but we don't seem to be able to deal with it. The design schools--which are way too conservative--aren't researching this; the relationship between engineering and design is in a stasis. But, man, we've got to go so much further. We need engineers to be prepared to go up front and lead!"


The key issues, contends Bangle, include urban congestion, pollution, and that the automobile is beyond the economic reach of many people, especially in the developing countries where makers are targeting growth. Cars--or, more accurately, personal-mobility devices--need to be made much cheaper. "Automobiles are now like computers in 1952. We're a long way from PCs that you go down to Wal-Mart to pick up. We're miles from where personal mobility could be if it achieves the efficiency and lost-cost dynamic we've come to expect from other industries. So come on, guys, let's roll!"

Ecellent read!
I live about 5 minutes from Padadena Art Center, where Bangle graduated from and probably one of the most prestigous art schools in teh country.

Wow... he really has vision and an excellent grasp for design. He believes in what he does and he really has transformed the auto-industry in terms of design.

I'd love to see what Adrian van Hooydonk can do now for BMW.

Amazing... only once has the word 'dynamic' been used in that article, and that was in the last sentence, ...now that is interesting coming from Bangle.

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I just wish many Audi and MB fans could admit the same thing, rather than blindly bashing BMW and Bangle because they're in a state of denial.

*P.S: If only that picture at the top of the article was as sharp as his designs.

That was a really good read, I have so much respect for this guy for going against the world. I never knew that all the criticising affects his son.

Funny. You only have to stop and wonder how the anti-Bangle mob affected his personal life. Like... were there people stalking his family, or something equally psycho?

A very interesting read. Thanks Eni.

I guess his son was under some peer pressure - mates teasing him at school, bashing his father what he had done to BMW etc.

And also: kid was 13 years old - I guess he was hanging on internet a lot -reading all the negative stuff about his father.

I'm sure such negative publicity, criticism, bashing of his father hurt child's feelings.

IMO there were no stalkers present. Or they were? Weird people live out there. So, who knows ...

What a great article, although I think they are slightly over-stating the influence of the 7er itself ......car designers are far more likely to be influenced by Bangle's ideas about design more than his actual finished work.

I remember when Bangle debuted the current 7 and all the fuss it got. How quickly things change. I would love to see what Bangle would do if he was appointed head designer of Porsche, the most conservative with design of any manufacturer. How would he change the classic 911? It would be interesting for sure.

Eyebrows man... the eyebrows.

If the E65 7er gave the world one thing, it was big, masive eyebrows from sea to shining sea.

Would anybody here deny that the current flood of eyebrow-type lights isn't to BMW's credit?