Chris Bangle - Design Philosophy

Design Philosophy

His styling themes have generated intense controversy among automotive designers, and have had a polarizing effect with respect to their visual cues. Bangle acknowledges that his designs do not look good in photographs, suggesting to critics that they should see the cars in real life before judging them on their looks.

Bangle himself did not (as is commonly believed) coin the phrase "flame surfacing" to describe his work; this can be attributed to a motoring journalist, and is probably the first time Deconstructivism has been adapted to automotive design. The reason for this design was to use BMW's new technology of 3D panel pressing allowing a single press for compound curves, which had previously needed multiple pressings unless the panel was shaped by hand. This is further evidenced by the fact that Bangle has often pointed out architect Frank Gehry's work as a major influence.

The most controversial of Bangle and Adrian van Hooydonk's work was the E65 7 Series, a sharp contrast to the preceding E38 generation which was conservatively styled. In fact, van Hooydonk's original 1998 sketch for the E65 was much more radical sleek fastback, but ending up the final design was toned down considerably to a more conventional three-box sedan. Time magazine named the E65 as one of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time for its rear end styling and iDrive functionality, while there were several online petitions pressing BMW to sack Bangle. While the sales for the 2002 and 2003 models years were off 60% from the 2001, the E65 7 series became the best-selling 7 Series of all time.

Bangle aggressively defended his designs against criticism. He was supported by the BMW board of directors, who wanted to move BMW's image into the future. He said it was necessary for product lines to follow a cycle of a revolutionary generation followed by an evolutionary generation followed by another revolutionary generation and so on. Indeed, he oversaw the conservative evolution of BMW designs with the redesign of the BMW 3-Series and the introduction of the BMW X5. For Bangle this marked the end of the evolution of BMW design and the revolution was witnessed with the 2002 introduction of the BMW E65.

Bangle's successor as chief designer Adrian van Hooydonk has shepherded succeeding generations of BMW nameplates into the evolutionary phase of design while also reincorporating traditional BMW cues such as L-styled tailights and a strong family resemblance; for instance the contrast between the E60 and F10 iterations of the 5 Series. According to van Hooydonk, "BMW design has a tendency to periodically muscle in with big, bold, design statements – to knock down walls – and in the follow-up model, its stylists can move about a bit more in the clean air made possible by its predecessor". Some have criticized van Hooydonk's designs as too bland and conservative and lacking the Avant-garde styling of Bangle designs. The F01 7 Series and F10 5 Series have also been described as "sausages cut into different lengths", in contrast to the E65 and E60 predecessors which were more differentiated from each other.