BMW by Design – a decade-by-decade story of design, BMW’s Hidden Gems – 10 unseen cars and untold stories, BMW Art by Design – a selection of the design art
December 7 2023 – Acclaimed automotive author Steve Saxty today launches BMW Behind The Scenes,a premium three-book set that provides deep insight into BMW design.
The large-format and very high quality books contain hundreds of unseen photos and designers’ sketches.They also tell, first-hand, the designers’ stories behind BMW’s most iconic models spanning 80 years.
Saxty – previously a car design engineer himself – worked in collaboration with Head of BMW Group Design Adrian van Hooydonk, who facilitated his access to BMW’s archives and designers.
The result of two-and-a-half years’ research and writing, the books also recount a broader story of how a major car company designs its cars,from the classics of the past through to the future.
The books in the BMW Behind The Scenes set are:
1 BMW by Design – The untold story of BMW styling past, present and future
The master book – 288 image-led pages printed on premium quality paper – tells how BMW design works and how showcars play an essential role in this development. Featuring more than 400 photos and design sketches, it starts with the cars that saved the company after World War Two. It delves into the design story of iconic models such as the CSL and the first 3 and 5 Series as well as the modern-day BMW concept cars, right through to the latest Vision Neue Klasse.
Throughout, BMW’s designers past and present explain first-hand how they designed the cars that have made BMW so successful. Their images and photographs are annotated to provide unique insight into both BMW and car design in general.
BMW by Design reveals how and why BMW’s design approach has so often been revolutionary. Anyone with an interest in car design – not just BMW fans – should view the book as essential reading.
2 BMW’s Hidden Gems
Saxty discovered a trove of previously unseen material. They’re presented in this premium, same-sized companion book to BMW by Design and include never published artwork given to Saxty by 1970s design maestro Paul Bracq and a nine other unseen gems from within BMW. Many of the images are brought to life via fold-out illustrations, alongside the previously untold stories behind them.
3 BMW Art by Design
During his research, Saxty saw that many of the designers’ drawings were pure art. From them, Head of BMW Group Design Adrian van Hooydonk selected those he thought were exceptional enough to be published standalone as the third book in the set, BMW Art by Design. Saxty contacted each of the current and former designers that created them to ask for the back stories and techniques behind these vivid pieces of automotive art.
Completing the package are separate giclée art-quality prints of 18 renderings, presented in a hand-made jewel box. Each of the 1500 First Edition copies are supplied in a luxury cloth-bound boxed slipcase, and individually numbered.
Saxty says: ‘I wanted to produce a set of books and prints that would be exceptional and deliver more and different content, especially images, about a fascinating subject.’
‘Lovers of classic BMWs will find fresh insights into how and why BMW designed its legendary models. Modern BMW owners will also find a feast awaiting as they meet the designers who created their cars and learn what they think as they shape the BMWs of today and tomorrow.’
Of his collaboration with Adrian van Hooydonk, Saxty says: ‘It became a partnership based on trust and mutual respect. We agreed that this should be a fresh, vibrant and unknown story about a company that is of interest to so many. I conducted more than 100 interviews with BMW designers, past and present, as they contributed their stories and sketches. What started out as a single book expanded to easily fill 570 pages across the three-book set.’
Adrian van Hooydonk says: ‘The thing that convinced me to support a book about our work was the unique concept Steve and I worked out. BMW by Design was not to be another history tome counting down years, facts and numbers. We wanted to capture the very spirit inside the BMW Group design team, our way of working and thinking, the passion, the risk-taking, and the tremendous dedication, time and energy our people expend. I think the result will provide readers with a glimpse of BMW’s future rather than just its past.’
For Saxty, highlights of the books are:
- The impact of BMW’s concept cars on its series production cars. He cites the VisionEfficient Dynamics that became the BMW i8 and the 3.0 CSL Hommage that impacted the style of recent M cars.
- A deep insight into what makes BMW design different, occasionally controversial, and what drives it to change course as times change.
- The fabric-bodied Gina car. It was deemed so extreme that the concept was kept under wraps for years. Saxty found out why: Gina inspired BMW’s designers and engineers to shape the surfaces of cars and manufacture them in new and startling ways.
- It now becomes the definitive book on the way design in the modern car industry operates. It ranges from how the Italian coachbuilders evolved to survive through to a behind-the-scenes look at how BMW (and the modern car industry) reinvented itself in the electrified era.
The First Edition BMW Behind The Scenes three-book set of 1500 copies – signed, numbered and hand-finished in a matching cloth-bound slipcase – will be mailed in January 2024. Pre-orders are now open at: https://www.stevesaxty.com/
Meanwhile, just 750 copies of the solus title, BMW by Design, will be available immediately at £79.95/€93.22 for mailing this month.
