Chris Bangle has galvanised BMW with a touch of 'bling', says Michael McAleer
Car designers have become the celebrities of the industry, the public personae for industrial giants. Understandable really, since they're far more identifiable with the car in the driveway than the suited CEOs or the boffin engineer.
Few designers have become more well-known or more controversial than BMW Group chief designer Chris Bangle. He's the P Diddy of the motor business, the man who put the "bling" in BMW.
His designs also led to an enormous split among car fans and owners. None of the other big name designers, such as Audi's Walter de Silver or even Renault's Patrick le Quement, have made so big a challenge to our preconceptions as Bangle's BMWs have.
So much so that several anti-Bangle websites sprang up at the time. One described him as a "diabolical super robot sent from the future by Mercedes-Benz to destroy BMW." An online "Stop Chris Bangle" petition collected over 10,000 signatures.
Does he think the criticism got too personal? "The hell it did," he says, shaking his head as if remembering some of the over-the-top attacks at the time. "But that's my job. When there's praise it's for the team, but when there's criticism I have to stand up and take the heat."
He's playing up a generous, friendly image, but his flamboyance fails to hide a certain "kick-ass" American attitude. He's already held court in at least 10 interviews today and he's on full song.
Despite the apparent bravado, we must address the criticism and whether he will ever bow to public pressure. He curries no favour with the attacks and stands by his design direction. Contrary to some industry claims, he says he has not been pushed aside to some token administrative role as a result of the critics. In fact, he claims it's all part of the original plan.
This in spite of the fact that Adrian van Hooydonk of BMW's DesignWorks in Los Angeles - a profitable subsidiary studio which does contract work for other firms on mobile phones and such - was named head of BMW brand design. "The job is a new title," Bangle says, "part of the overall plan. The team is now complete and it allows me to set the overall direction for the group.
"What was missing until now was to get all the players on my team that could be responsible for their various marques. Adrian will come into a role that did not exist before."
Bangle points out that a car company's designs, particularly those of BMW, are not the work of any one man. They're the result of extensive research into form, a well-thought-out corporate philosophy and a committed team effort.
To highlight the team effort, he points to the 5-Series. While Bangle was the instigator, the latest 5-Series was actually designed by Italian Davida Arcangeli, who sadly died of leukaemia before he could see it on the road.
Explaining the so-called flame-surfacing on the side of the cars, he says it was Davida who came up with this surface. He was fascinated by the lines of tension.
"Davida always had an interest in the old Zeppelin planes and the tension on the cloth. Traditional design is all based on convex and concave philosophies, but what we were looking at was 'spline' design, the two curves will never in effect meet."
He stretches his fingers back over his cheeks, pulling the skin taut. Through tightened lips he explains: "The sort of tension lines you see here, the curves and creases, this is what we're seeking to replicate, if the technology and metal presses allow."
Bangle's good at working with tension. His rise within the company coincided with huge in-fighting during 2000 and 2001, culminating in several senior execs "resigning" or taking early retirement.
At the time, German commentators were dismayed with the state of the firm. Some suggested that BMW was even set to be sold off to Ford.
It's come a long way from then. Now it's set to top Mercedes. Clearly the new management deserves credit, but so too do the designers and engineers behind the new models, many of whom flourished in the political distraction of the time.
It certainly allowed Bangle to build up his own position and that of the design department. Before they knew it, Bangle had a public profile outside the firm, even outside the industry.
This certainly strengthened his hand enough to withstand criticism of the 7-Series when it first came out.
These days he seems clear on his role in the firm: "I'm here to provide a method and a direction for the designers, to keep the brand theme and the design process."
The process - the timeframe of car design - changes every two generations. So, the theory goes, you can expect the next changes to BMW's model line-up to be less dramatic.
Yet he suggests that the traditional approach need not always apply. "Look back to the 1930s - the changes made then every time a new model was introduced, were massive. Now it's all evolution. But it need not be."
Politically, however, most suspect it will.
And so we come to the secret of car design. With customary verbal flair, he rattles off the answer: "It's beauty, it's truth, it's love . . . it's art, and I suppose it's a touch of hope."
Hard work if you can get it
Car designers are not only becoming the focus of attention for car firms. They also get to live the pop star lifestyle. It's a far cry from the metal presses and spreadsheets.
BMW's "deep blue" project involved 12 designers decamping to a beach house on the Californian coast with no other remit than to think about the future of the car and what will come after the SUV.
"During that time the only contact we had with them was through the credit card bills and the odd phone call," says a BMW spokesman. The end result was the BMW compact CS1 concept, shown at Geneva two years ago. It allowed for a bicycle to be fitted into the roof frame. This, after six months of surfing? But on a less trivial nature, it also heralded the current 1-Series.
Six months hanging out at the beach may seem extravagant, but it's the sort of link that car firms try to make between designers and the audience they are aiming to attract.
For a designer, it can take five years between fine pencil lines and polished metal in the customer car park. Given that cars are increasingly becoming fashion accessories, this type of forward thinking design is enormously challenging.
When BMW bought Rolls-Royce it moved the design team into a converted bank in Marble Arch and surrounded them with the trappings of traditional English wealth and heritage that needed to be replicated in the new car. Jaguar sent two of its designers out on the town for several nights to get a grasp of how the high rollers live. After Stringfellows and several champagne nights, they came up with the long-wheelbase version of the current XJ.
