BMW Group Wins "Design Team of the Year" 2007 at the red dot Awards

BMW Group and BMW Group DesignworksUSA capture 8 awards for outstanding
product design at the international awards ceremony. 26th June 2007,
Singapore. This year's prestigious red dot award for "Design Team
of the Year" has been awarded to the BMW Group for excellence in
product design. The BMW Group was honoured by an international jury for
outstanding contribution to the design industry at the gala awards
ceremony on 26 June at the Essen Opera House, the Aalto Theatre (named
after Finnish designer and architect, Alvar Aalto). Two automobiles,
the BMW 3 Series Coupe and the new Mini Cooper S, along with the BMW
F800S, BMW G650 Xcountry and the BMW HP2 Megamoto motorcycles, also won
red dot awards for product design for the BMW Group. At the same time,
the BMW Group subsidiary, BMW DesignworksUSA won awards for their
designs of the BMW Cruise Bike Junior, the design of a recycling
station for beverage holders, and the fully automatic coffee percolator
Talea Touch, making it a total of eight red dot awards for the BMW
Group. Awards acknowledge BMW design leadership The red dot
"Design Team of the Year" award is one of the most respected
and internationally acclaimed awards in the industry, and this year saw
more than 2,548 entries from 43 countries. "Both the number of
products submitted and the quality standards were excellent this
year," said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder of the red dot Awards
and President of the international design association, Icsid. The
awards cross various categories including architecture, automobiles,
transport, industrial, leisure, lifestyle, office, computer and
entertainment electronics. The "Design Team of the Year" is
awarded based on three main areas including setting new benchmarks in
both presentation and selection; managing excellence in the fields of
education and training in design and adoption and commercialisation -
where concepts are adopted into the marketplace. Previous winners of
the award include Nokia, Apple, Pinnafarina and LG. The BMW Group
design team is led by chief designer, Christopher E. Bangle. The
combination of the BMW Group's philosophy and Bangle's personal belief
in creative diversity has allowed the Group to constantly push the
envelope in design and innovation, and establish their leadership
within the design community. Bangle balances these ideals by allowing
his team the greatest possible freedom in their search for inspiration
and influence, drawing it back to a philosophy of an aspiration for
authenticity. Thus design not only expresses the character of the
brand, but also the quality offered in a new product. BMW
DesignworksUSA an integral part of Group's design strength The BMW
Group's design leadership is further enhanced with its integral
subsidiary, DesignworksUSA, which has proven to be a vital and worthy
partner to the BMW Group. Beyond designing vehicles, equipment and
accessories for the BMW Group, the design team are committed to a
distinctive collection of international companies in the fields of IT,
entertainment electronics, boat building, aircraft technology,
household, lifestyle and sports. BMW Group DesignworksUSA won a
second red dot award for the design of a recycling station for beverage
holders, on top of winning two red dot awards to add to the Group' s
total win of seven awards, Headquartered in California, the design
consultancy established its Asian studio in Singapore in early 2006 to
meet the growing demand for design services in the region. The Asian
arm of the studio has become the creative node for International design
teams who are interested in serving the region. The creative space,
design resources and cultural insights of the Singapore studio has made
it a hotbed for creative ideas to flourish, with the cross-pollination
of cultural insights between the East and the West, resulting in a
unique design service for the Asian market. "Singapore has
proven to be an ideal regional platform to expand design work in Asia.
With a cosmopolitan society, high value and expectations on quality, and
a dynamic view on future business developments, Singapore is in the
midst of forming of a very strong creative hub. This along with high
Intellectual Property standards, excellent infrastructure and strong
government encouragement have contributed to this sturdy
formation," said Niko von Saurma, BMW Group DesignworksUSA
Singapore studio director.