Mexico City – Three months ago a car went around the world. From celebrities like Paris Hilton to specialized car magazines, everyone talked about the prototype that showed BMW’s vision of the future. It was an aggressive sports car called Vision M Next, inspired by a jet and capable of transmitting to its pilot everything that can be felt walking at 300 kilometers per hour.
This is one of the first two BMW cars whose exterior has been designed by a Mexican: José Casas, 34.

He graduated from the Industrial Design career at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and studied at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, before arriving at BMW, he worked and was an intern at Honda, Torino Design and Pininfarina. He even worked for BMW Designworks in Los Angeles, where he created all kinds of products.

“I asked them” when we will make cars “and they told me there was no opportunity because the car design center was separate and we were not allowed access,” Casas said in a telephone interview from Munich.

“Then I decided to stay an hour or two after I finished my workday drawing cars so that my boss could see that I was motivated, until one day the car designers asked for support and they looked for me.”

The training he needed to spend hours sketching had been obtained at the school in Detroit, where he almost threw in the towel.

“I remember a class in which we were asked for 40 pages of drawings; I did not sleep, but I could not finish them and, when I arrived in the classroom, the Koreans and the Americans had made up to 50″ José Casas, exterior designer for BMW.

“Once the teacher broke me up because I was the only one who hadn’t finished; I left crying, I spoke to my dad and said: ‘I return to Mexico, I can not, the level they have is too high, I will not be able to reach them anymore’ And my dad replied: ‘You are already there and what you start you finish. That moment was crucial; I cried a whole day, but the courage and dedication made me get ahead ”

During his stay in California, José scratched the dream of designing cars by winning a project to create a vehicle from scratch that was eventually canceled. “It was very difficult because I realized that although you give everything there are external factors that affect the process and you have to understand it. I ended up very frustrated, it took me time to assimilate it, but once again I recovered and thought: another will come, another will come.” And arrived.

After 4 years of working in Los Angeles, José was searched in the big leagues: BMW Munich. There he first designed the exterior of the i Next prototype, a futuristic fully electric SUV and then was in charge of the Vision M Next, one of the company’s most ambitious prototypes, which defines the M line, the sportiest of BMW.

Two cars in a display room. The car on the left is dark pink with a black underside. The sportscar on the right is silver with a black underside and a red front and rear bumperThese are the two prototypes designed by José Casas.

“With the San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico, I see more Mexicans here at BMW Munich, but I am the only Mexican designer and these two cars are the first BMWs designed by a Mexican since the brand exists. I will continue working on other projects and I hope that in the future you will continue to hear from me. BMW has given me the opportunity to learn, to grow and I am in a very good position, in which I have earned the respect of the Munich office “José Casas, exterior designer for BMW.

 

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