DESIGN TEAM OF THE YEAR: INTELLIGENT TEAMWORK WINS INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM

Design Team of the Year: Intelligent teamwork wins international acclaim.
Essentials of BMW Group design development: The right tool at the right time,
the right people in the right place.

Munich. The exhibition dedicated to this year's winners of the red dot award
hosted by the red dot design museum, which is situated on the grounds of
Essen's World Cultural Heritage, the coal mine "Zeche Zollverein", was extended
until 5 August, 2007. At the centre of this presentation of outstanding product
design are highly acclaimed design projects accomplished by the this year's
winner of the title "Design Team of the Year".: BMW Group The show in Essen,
which has already been extended once before, demonstrates how BMW Group always
succeeds in fascinating customers of the BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW
Motorcycle brand with the design of their vehicles while also convincing the
automotive experts.
At the internationally acclaimed design competition, current BMW Group products
were also highly successful. Both the new BMW 3 Series Coupe and the new MINI
were presented with a Red Dot Award 2007. The jury also considered three BMW
Motorcycle models: BMW F 800 S, BMW G 650 Xcountry and BMW HP2 Megamoto.
Winning the title of "Design Team of the Year 2007" however, was the highlight
of the award winning ceremony as it expresses the jury's respect for sustained
and trend-setting innovative design work. The award pays tribute to the design
team for successfully highlighting the premium character of the car, while
maintaining the tradition of the brands and expressing the innovative force of
BMW Group.

This year's red dot awards presentation ceremony pays tribute to the design
achievement of a whole team, the "Design Team of the Year" rather than honoring
the work of individual designers. During the award ceremony at the
Aalto-Theater in Essen, Christopher E. Bangle, BMW Group's chief designer,
emphasized his appreciation of this shift in focus. "Successful, sustained
design never the work of an individual ," Bangle explained. He highlighted the
importance of bringing a range of different characters and personalities with
diverse skills and qualifications using a high variety of different tools to
work on one project.

An essential element of BMW Group's design philosophy is the principle of
integrating a group of people with a variety of different skills in one
successful unit. This is not just about teamwork but about the selection of the
most efficient and effective method for every single stage of the project. "We
need to put the right people in the right place," Bangle sums up, "and we need
the right tool at the right time."

This method is an integral part of the process of designing vehicles of the
BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorcycle brand. At the beginning of the design
process, the designers are faced with an empty, white sheet of paper and their
heads are full of information and ideas. The visual expression of design
concepts is delivered in many sketches. At the same time, two- and
three-dimensional drafts are created by means of digital tools. These versatile
tools allow the development of rough surface geometries and animations within a
relatively short period of time. More importantly, however, they allow a highly
efficient exchange of data with all other partners in the product development
process.

During all stages, the design process is characterized by an ongoing assessment
to ensure that the right tools are used for the process in hand. A life-size
"tape plan" with the finalized proportions for example, is used to hone the
most important contour lines. This method allows the rapid implementation of
changed within the design concept without excessive material consumption. This
is followed by the next stage: from two-dimensional to three-dimensional
representation. At this time, the first clay models and the first virtual
three-dimensional models are developed. Both tools are important in their own
specific way: the clay model widens the sensory perception, while the computer
allows a fast and precise transfer of data to the numerous development partners.

The designers are set on dealing with the problem of when best let machines
take over manual processes and vice versa in an ongoing and deliberate process.
The quest for the right tool is guided by clear principles, which determine the
composition and interaction of a design team. Best example: CAS (Computer Aided
Styling) methods for design processes are only deployed by clay modelers with a
high degree of professionalism and many years of experience with the clay
modeling process. Only then can these skilled team members exploit the
strengths of this tool without losing the design to its preference. Does work
on a virtual object open up new design potential or does it even restrict
creativity? In order to find answers o these questions, one must look to the
work on a real, three-dimensional object. This way the personal touch of
skilled human beings with their optical and tactile sensory abilities remains
at the center of this process.

"Whenever we need to see the overall effect of a vehicle, the eyes and hands of
the human designer are vastly superior to any computer tool," Ralf Kostenzer,
Head of Clay and CAS Modelling at BMW Group's design department, emphasizes.
Yet, computers are indispensable when it comes to making the production process
more efficient and gaining more time for the creative process.

When it comes to making design processes more efficient, the deployment of a
five-axis CNC milling machine is doubtlessly the tool of choice. This machine
is used to introduce rough contours and proportions to a new clay model. The
milling machine is programmed to CAS data. The rough models are then manually
honed with fine tools to their final design. Over a period of several months,
the clay modelers will refine, diversify and add the finishing touches to the
clay model. "For us, the finer modeling work that come with the design of
surfaces truly proves that car design is a form of art," Kostenzer explains.
This is achieved by a close cooperation between designers and clay modelers. At
the same time, they will use their CAS skills to quickly change individual
details such as headlight assemblies or wheel via rapid prototyping whenever
this is deemed efficient. Different methods are seamlessly integrated into the
entire design process.

The processes a selected model has to undergo prior to its series production
are characterized by interaction between human creativity and computer-aided
efficiency. Computer Aided Design (CAD) is used to reconvert the data acquired
by scanning the clay model into three-dimensional computer models. This way,
data is transferred efficiently to all departments involved in the product
development process right through to preparing the model for the tooling
department, which marks the start of all series production processes. Up until
this moment, the hand-made clay model remains the final reference for the safe
implementation of all technical requirements.

For questions, please contact:

Corporate Communications

Rudolf-Andreas Probst, Product Communication Cars
Tel: +49 89 382 22088, Fax: +49 89 382 20626

Kristina Weith, Product Communications Cars, Design and Concept Cars
Tel: +49 89 382 26707, Fax: +49 89 382 20626

Media website: www.press.bmwgroup.com
E-mail: presse@bmw.de