Inside Designworks’ new Santa Monica studio
By Laura Burstein2023-02-20T13:37:00
CDN gets a tour of Designworks’ new LA studio and chats to founder Chuck Pelley and BMW design boss Adrian van Hooydonk
BMW’s Designworks is celebrating a historic move from its longtime home in Newbury Park, CA, to a smaller, all-digital space in Santa Monica. Founded in 1972 by Charles “Chuck” Pelly as an independent consultancy, Designworks was later acquired by BMW and was the birthplace of iconic designs for BMW as well as outside clients.
“When it started in 1972 there was this West Coast, hot-rod thinking,” Pelly told CDN in an exclusive interview ahead of Designworks’ official opening. “That was when all the imagination and future thinking was coming from California.”