PressClub Global · Article.
The passion is in the details. A profile of Oliver Sieghart.
Tue Mar 01 10:03:00 CET 2016 Press Release
Oliver Sieghart has been Head of Interior Design at MINI since 2008. His area of responsibility embraces all the interior equipment and fittings for current and future MINI models – from the seats and steering wheel all the way to the cockpit and doors. His success formula is to generate latitude for creativity.
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Oliver Sieghart has been Head of Interior Design at MINI since 2008.
His area of responsibility embraces all the interior equipment and
fittings for current and future MINI models – from the seats and
steering wheel all the way to the cockpit and doors. His success
formula is to generate latitude for creativity. Together with his team
of young creative designers, he gives free rein to inventiveness and
in doing so defines the way forward. The decisive and innovative
design elements are then filtered out and perfected, and the end
result is an original, typically MINI design of the utmost precision
and quality.
Career path: a straight trajectory towards the
target.
The Munich-born designer discovered his penchant
for style and aesthetics early on, prompting him to study product
design at the Fachhochschule Munich. As part of his diploma project,
Sieghart joined BMW as a car designer. In his very first year he won
the company’s in-house interior design competition for the BMW Z4 and
subsequently saw the model through to successful production. In 2008
Sieghart switched to MINI as Head of Interior Design. For him the
particular appeal of this post lies in the challenge of redefining the
interior design of such an iconic brand without compromising the
familiar MINI character. Under his direction the brand has turned out
concept cars like the MINI Rocketman and Clubman Concept, as well as
series-produced models including the MINI 3 and 5 door, the MINI
Clubman and the MINI Cabrio.
Ideology: anything’s possible.
For Oliver
Sieghart a MINI is an emotionally-charged product, made for customers
with a discerning lifestyle and sense of aesthetics. The interior
design, he believes, should allow for intuitive operation while also
taking the driver by surprise. But it is important to Sieghart that
every detail should reflect the uniqueness of the brand and at the
same time meet the functional brief. The Munich native has no time for
design gimmicks that are mere distractions and don’t serve a useful
purpose. It is this combination of pragmatism and emotion that he
loves about his work for MINI, along with the opportunity to further
develop the popular heritage of the brand and take it forward into the
modern era.
Personally speaking.
Oliver Sieghart’s passion
for design is in his DNA. Inspiring discussions about art with his
culturally active parents, along with the furnishings in their house
that consisted mainly of design classics, nurtured his passion for
aesthetics. As for living within his own four walls, he prefers the
plain approach: purist furniture, industrial parquet flooring and
light-coloured walls. The reason for this is as pragmatic as the décor
itself: Sieghart has two sons and he wants to provide them with
freedom of space – to romp around, mess about and build things.
Sieghart finds inspiration wherever he looks, whether at exhibitions,
trade fairs, on holiday, during stimulating exchanges or when browsing
magazines. To free up his mind for completely fresh thoughts, he
spends the weekends with his family or takes mountain bike tours from
Lake Tegernsee into the Dolomites.