BMW Group VP of Design Adrian van Hooydonk has revealed to Autocar UK that the next generation MINI will be a “bigger design leap than the last one”.

According to van Hooydonk, Anders Warming, new chief designer at MINI, will start the design of the Mk3 MINI generation from a near clean sheet of paper. He further added: “we have to balance that against the fact that it is the brand’s core model, like the 3, 5 and 7-series rolled into one.”

Sources close to the magazine also said MINI has been working on a new interior design language to replace the theme of the large centrally mounted speedometer.

After 10 successful years at MINI Design, Gert Volker Hildebrand handed over the running of the MINI Design studio to Anders Warming at the end of 2010. Gert Volker Hildebrand (57) has been responsible for the complete design development of the MINI brand since January 2001 and, with his design team, has shaped the development of the MINI brand portfolio.

His successor, Anders Warming, former head of Exterior Design at BMW, started working for DesignworksUSA in California in 1997. Following this, the 38-year-old Dane was employed in various positions as an automobile designer before coming to Munich in 2005 as Team Leader, Advanced Design, BMW Group. In 2007, he took over as head of Exterior Design, BMW Automobiles. Under his leadership, the BMW Z4, BMW 5 Series and the BMW Concept 6 Series Coupé, presented at the Paris Auto Show, were created.

Once again, we wish Warming (a friend of BMWBLOG) all the best in his new adventure at an exciting brand.