This interview with former BMW Chief of Design Chris Bangle reveals some universal creative principles for creating and managing a culture of design.
Break down the walls between your teams, but ...
During the true development process there’s no reason to hide things. However, keep the board of directors and the marketing guys at bay - you can’t create life under an atmosphere of ‘no’.
Balance your race-horses with thinkers
First and foremost you want designers to bring energy to the table ... those are the race-horses - you just want to turn them loose. But you also want to make sure you get the deep thinkers in there, the artistic ones, who are sometimes shy and often intimidated by the aggressiveness of the other types. But they’re often the quiet sleeper ones that come up with that deep deep idea.
Having the power to let go
When you are on a model, you are the design chief - you have to know you have that power. Yet, design chiefs, if they do their job right, need to become experts at letting go.
Get deeper inside your team’s heads
My job is to help you do your job. However I’m going to open up your drawers and see what you’ve got stashed away that you’re not doing. What is it that you want to do that someone is not letting you do, that you’re dreaming of doing, but don’t have the courage to put up on the wall?
Open your horizons
If you like cars you have to appreciate all of them - for what it took to make them. Even the cars that are butt-ugly - there was a design team that put a lot of love into that. Try to understand it from their point of view - their limitations - and see what you can learn from that.
via PSFK