Former BWM designer Jochen Paesen joins the design studio at Kia Motors. The South Korean-based design team is led by Karim Habib, former BMW Head of Design. This is Kia’s third major hire from BMW’s pool of talent which also includes Albert Biermann, previously head of engineering at BMW M.
Paesen has a name for himself while working on the interior design of the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics which later became the BMW i8.
The Belgium national is a globetrotter having lived in South Africa, France, England, Holland and Germany. We finished his design degree at Coventry University in England, then attended the Royal College of Art.
Prior to BMW, Paesen worked for Volkswagen for 5 years where he crafted the interior of the Amarok. Aside from the Vision ED concept, Paesen also penned the interior design of F12 6 Series. Before leaving BMW for NIO, he was the Head of Interior Design for BMW i.
BMWBLOG Exclusive: Jochen Paesen explains the design of the BMW 6 Series Convertible
At NIO, Paesen was in charge of the Interior Design team. He designed the super electric vehicle EP9 and the compact sport utility electric vehicle ES8.
In his new role at Kia, Paesen will be Vice President of the Interior Design Group and based out of the Kia Design Center in Namyang, South Korea. He’ll report to Habib who is now Senior Vice President and Head of the Kia Design Center.
[Source: Carscoops]
Hopefully now now bm can continue to make more appealing interior and exterior designs, love them myself and currents designs are big improvements but not universally lauded
The 6 Series was beautiful and same for the Vision Concept.
The “bad people” stick with BMW, some leave. The good ppl always leave Bmw after a while and become later their enemies when they go to Audi and Hyundai Kia, etc. If I where in charge for BMW’s design, I would never accept such radical design changes and probably leave Bmw before they gave me orders to design Beaver teeth on their cars. Bring Habib back!
or maybe bring another Pasadena Bangle back ? Imagine next X5 with Rodent Teeth, jesus kkk
Or Bangle, yes!
You and yourself licking your butt for Audi. What else should anyone read here??
Thanks replying, refer to other Edgar above. above, keep up the good work, happy they’re taking a risk with new grilles, nice or not at least they’re being bold let’s see what happens
Porsche will kick ass with the taycan hopefully we can make ground with i4
They messed up with x3m and 4m , new m motor and they didn’t nail it after nailing m5 ,
M2 was nailed , but design getting a little old,
X5 and x6 sounds like they nailed, they better nail the new m3 and m4
You want them to be envied more for their design like other car companies are starting to be envied for being modern, desirable and edgy
Maybe the issue with new Bmw’s looking so much like KIA’s is because all the lead designers are trying to get poached?
Paesen is a loss, just like the Genius Biermann. Why can’t instead these goofs leave that are responsible for the criminally stupid looking monster face grille designs?
O too think don’t know what they doing with tractor grill
6 series great, and vision for sure and they’ve returned to form with many more current models and I still find some way to like their cars and I love their new interiors , but they need to become more desirable I think in as many classes as possible ,
X3? Outstyled, x4 is nice , but Volvo and Range Rover more desirable, Porsche macan, 3 series, 5 series, 7 series no edge to these cars no sporty prestige as they used to have , they say customers don’t want that, but they can do better,
Why would a particular brand get targeted for their designers? Because they’re terrible?
BMW is still leading the automotive design world (mostly, at least). Other manufacturers know this.
They say, it’s a good thing we don’t all like the same things… Darn shame those BMW detractors are so vocal about it.
Makes sense, seems like the Hyundai group is likely giving them more creative freedom at their company than BMW ever was, probably the exact reason Biernman left, especially since he said that ///M had become “Marketing” now a days.
There is a German Youtuber, JP Kraemer, he visited Biermann in South Korea. To make it short: Yes, lack of creative freedom and overwhelming bureaucracy at BMW. I can absolutely feel for him, i also changed my job a few years for similar reasons.
Biermann however created the much appreciated N division.