Now, we’re definitely not in the habit of talking about booze, even if some of us here do enjoy the odd tipple or three now and then, but something along those lines then on a Monday morning, simply because of who’s behind it.
Chris Bangle, who was BMW’s chief of design for more than a decade and a half, and who will forever be associated with the Bangle butt (the rather affectionate term for the E65 7-Series’ bustle-back lid that was actually penned by Adrian van Hooydonk), is back in the design game with a fresh composition, one offering a rather different perspective. The man, who was also responsible for penning the Fiat Coupe, has come up with a new… cognac bottle!
Yes, it’s all glug-glug with this one – Bangle has inked the lines of Hennessy’s new V.S.O.P bottle, his first project outside the automotive industry. The American designer was in KL last week for the unveiling of the new package design – shame we weren’t able to have caught up with him for a one-on-one (the slots were filled up, seems).
It’d have been a hoot to ask CB what’s been happening since he left Munich (“Finally hit the bottle, eh, Chris?”), and if there’s any significantly different approach needed in designing a bottle as opposed to a car. Wonder if this one will be known as the Hennessy butt. Or the Bangle bottle.
This video shows Chris Bangle speaking on his love of designing cars, as well as “Bangle-bashing” – the criticism of the design cues that he has inserted into the current generation of BMW cars, the most famous being the Bangle Butt.
