Christopher Edward Bangle (born October 14, 1956) is an American automobile designer. Bangle is known best for his work as Chief of Design for BMW Group, where he was responsible for the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce motor cars. Early life Bangle was born in Ravenna, Ohio, and raised in Wausau, Wisconsin. After considering becoming a Methodist minister, Bangle attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, earning a Bachelor of Science degree. Career Opel Bangle started his career at Opel in Germany, where he worked from 1981 until 1985. The first work that he designed is the interior of the Opel Junior concept car. Fiat He moved to Fiat in Italy in 1985, to work on the second generation Fiat Panda (released 2003). From 1990 he worked as a chief designer of the Fiat Coupé (released 1993). Still in Centro Stile Fiat he designed Alfa Romeo 145. BMW He became the first American chief of design of BMW on October 1, 1999, where he designed the Z9 Gran Turismo concept car. Bangle's designs are incorporated in the entire BMW lineup, including the BMW Z4, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 series as well as the X3, X5, and X6 the newest design SUVs, and the concept car Gina. These span the automotive platforms E81 / E82 / E87 / E88, E90 / E91 / E92 / E93, E60 / E61, E63 / E64, E65 / E66 and E53. During the Bangle era, BMW overtook Mercedes as the global leader in premium car sales. He introduced a new BMW concept car, called GINA on June 10, 2008. On February 3, 2009, Bangle announced that he was to quit both his position at BMW and the auto industry altogether, to focus on his own design-related endeavours. He was replaced by Adrian van Hooydonk. Post-BMW Bangle now works for his own firm called Bangle and Associates based in Clavesana, Italy. In 2012, Bangle was hired by Samsung. Design philosophy His styling themes have generated intense controversy among automotive designers, and have had a polarizing effect with respect to their visual cues. Bangle acknowledges that his designs do not look good in photographs, suggesting to critics that they should see the cars in real life before judging them on their looks. Bangle himself did not (as is commonly believed) coin the phrase "flame surfacing" to describe his work; this can be attributed