THE GARAGE
In 1972, a garage in Malibu became the birthplace of a global strategic design consultancy with an impressive body of work in automotive and product design.

BMW Group DesignworksUSA is the brainchild of respected design industry veteran Chuck Pelly. His motto “Great people, great projects equals great fun” is often credited as the guiding force that keeps his design teams at the forefront.

35 years after the unassuming inception, Verena Kloos, one of automobile’s foremost authority figures, helms the design hothouse. Her previous positions as Head of the DaimlerChrysler Advanced Design Studio in Como, Italy, and Design Director for Volkswagen in Simi Valley, California, underline her expertise in the automotive industry.

The studio has outgrown the Malibu garage to be now headquartered in a 78,000 sq ft facility in Newbury Park, California, and opened additional offices in Munich and Singapore.

With originally three full-time designers behind the wheel, BMW Group DesignworksUSA today boasts of a formidable team strength exceeding 130 people from diverse cultures and professional backgrounds spanning from product and communication to transportation and automotive.






THE ENGINE
BMW Group DesignworksUSA’s exceptional work with a long list of industry leaders such as BenQ, AeroVironment, Boeing Business Jets, Combi, ecopod, Embraer, John Deere, Nilfisk, Remington, Rubbermaid, Saeco, Star Trac, Starbucks, and Zeydon, Nokia, Adidas, Paccar, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, Villeroy & Boch, Siemens, Embraer, Waterpik and AMO have left competition in the dust.

It is this multi-disciplinary structure, invention and creative philosophy that first caught the eye of BMW in 1986. BMW Group DesignworksUSA possesses an extraordinary energy that fuels the passions and demands in BMW Group’s challenge to diversify and bring a unique perspective to their expanding markets, and BMW Group DesignworksUSA is the perfect partner to embark on this eye-opening journey.

Director of BMW Group Design Chris Bangle, a student of Chuck Pelly, sheds some light: “We wanted more than just a strong design supplier or a permanent in-house partner when we acquired BMW Group DesignWorksUSA. We wanted to enhance our knowledge about the world of our customers.

“It is important that BMW Group Design looks beyond the motorcycles and cars to understand the forces shaping the lives and desires of our clients, and there is no better way to experience this dynamic than by being part of it.”

Essentially, BMW Group DesignworksUSA is the visionary bridge to the future, tapping on its foresight in the strategic development of revolutionary designs—their edge lies in knowing today what consumers want tomorrow.

It is no illusion.

A strong multi-cultural group of diverse talents provides the horsepower. On top of that, the team is led under the direction of Verena Kloos, who herself is armed with extensive design experience in Europe and U.S. and has a Bachelor of Design degree in the Industrial Design program under the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig.

A rich culture of vibrant interaction in an energetic environment fosters creative collaborations between individual designers and design teams.

Working with academic, technical and artistic institutions stimulates mutually beneficial insightful, exciting exchanges of knowledge in design, technology and business. This intelligence keeps creative strategists inspired and constantly updated, who are always ready to return to the drawing board. The team has created a “Food for Thought” series where external speakers on various topics of inspiration are brought to BMW Group DesignworksUSA.


THE JOURNEY
But even before they pick up a pencil, BMW Group DesignworksUSA might have already found your answer. Before sketching begins, all assumptions are corrected, end user and brand criteria considered, other influences noted and future trends driven by present consumer values understood and a hundred of other questions answered to acquire an appropriate perspective on the project. Bringing this examination upfront instead of conducting it later means the designers steer through the process with great clarity right from the start.

Another methodology in BMW Group DesignworksUSA’s unique approach is known as Strategic Visualization.

The lead-time required by clients in automotive and transportation industries is unusually long, between five to seven years. Again, foresight is vital to understand how their products fit in the future marketplace.

By tracking different influences in time—including impact by technology, consumer values and the global context where these products will inhabit—BMW Group DesignworksUSA develops Road Maps to guide clients into the future landscape and acquire the necessary knowledge to create a design language for the product. This technique of foreseeing the future has paved the way for the agency to control, explain and focus design more effectively.

Future Scenarios take one step further from Road Maps. They are small film projects that illustrate the significant changes in consumer lifestyles and product uses through the year 2015 to equip clients with a clear vision of tomorrow’s landscape.

This entertainment technique shows and reinforces the importance of brand stability. Clients who recognize that design is the key differentiator in today’s economies seek BMW Group DesignworksUSA’s expertise in brand capabilities, such as translating core values into design languages and brand repositioning.






THE DESTINATION
By leveraging on all these in-depth yet broad know-how and experiences, BMW Group DesignworksUSA is geared to deliver premium design quality to BMW Group, as well as its clients hailing from a wide spectrum of trades, and take these companies out of the confines of the specializations, redefining what they know and are known for.

This “cross-pollination of ideas”, BMW Group DesignworksUSA’s most distinguishing asset, set the wheels of groundbreaking concepts in motion, way ahead of their time.


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