Hasta La Ideas

According to Autoweek, legendary designer Chris Bangle, the man responsible for the much-imitated aesthetics of the BMW 7-series, is quitting the auto design industry to “pursue his own design-related endeavors.”

In an interview with the man, Motor Trend mused that Bangle might be “The most influential automotive designer of the early 21st century.” For those of you unfamiliar with him, here’s a look at some Bangle news, opinions and accomplishments from the past few years:

Bangle on design, from Design Thinking Digest.

Chris Bangle at the TED conference, explaining that “Great cars are art:”

Bangle giving his personal overview of the BMW Design Group’s exhibits at the Detroit Motor Show from ’06:

Lastly, Bangle’s basic bio is here.

For Bangle to quit the biz is horrible news for BMW, but may be great news for the design world at large. No word on what Bangle will be getting into yet, we’ll keep you posted of developments.

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