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BMW DW INTERNSHIP

 Image Credit: BMW Designworks, N.A.

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In the Fall of 2018, I got the opportunity to be a part of the BMW Group Designworks and work as a Strategic Design and Research Intern for Creative Consulting at their U.S. office in Newbury Park, California. I was responsible for providing research and strategy support on a variety of projects for internal and external clients of Designworks USA.

PROJECTS:

- BMW 360 Context

- BMW Advanced Design / Symbols of Success

- BMW Advanced Design / Software First

- BMW Experience Modes

- BMW X4 Character Workshop

- Boeing HorizonX

- The VF Corporation (The North Face) / Creative Visions

- John Deere Construction

- SeaRay

RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Front end research and strategy support for various client projects

- Competitive landscaping and bench-marking across multiple tiers and markets globally

- Support in the framing and synthesis of creative and business strategy for client projects

- Assistance to story-boarding for BMW character workshops

- Sourcing and editing of visual material to be presented to executive level members of BMW's Design Group

- Building desk research decks and professional client presentations

- Participating and contributing to client meetings, interviews, and workshops

- Maintaining and organizing up-to-date master files for BMW 360 Context

- Large format printing and support in organizing various client workshops

- Collaborating with a multi-disciplinary team of strategists, industrial designers, interaction designers, automotive  designers, creative directors, and strategic partners to foster innovation and business growth for companies worldwide.

CLIENTS:

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Mike Milley, Creative Director

During his time at Designworks, Ajay was responsible for providing research and strategy support on a variety of projects. He was a valuable team member on several BMW projects, and also several external client projects, including Boeing, The North Face, and John Deere. Ajay has a positive and enthusiastic attitude, which is always appreciated by his co-workers. His behavior with superiors, colleagues, and business partners was always polite and appropriate. He always displayed positive motivation and a high level of self initiative. Ajay is pro-active and good at asking the right questions, both of which are qualities of professional researchers. He is generally an attentive listener, understanding tasks and story lines easily, digging into the content and researching for strategy projects. His work speed always met our expectations.

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Martin Francisco, Strategist

Ajay is curious, passionate, and a tireless individual who would be a valuable addition to any multi-disciplinary team. I was continuously impressed by Ajay’s willingness to dive deep into a given topic of research or specific task set. One of his contributions was a broad and far ranging summary of an Industrial company’s competitive landscape, globally, across multiple tiers and markets. Ajay compiled an exhaustive benchmarking of the market with some interesting initial insights which helped fuel the later framing and synthesis. In his role, we required both flexibility yet a high level of execution in a timely manner, and Ajay was able to take on last minute requests with aplomb as well as maintain longer term elements of a task with very little supervision. Over the course of his internship, he grew in his ability to understand different levels of communication based on the client and audience. He was crucial in assisting story-boarding, sourcing of visual material that were presented to executive level members of BMW's Design group. I am confident Ajay will succeed and grow in his future endeavors.

(Image sourced from the DW website)

BMW 360 CONTEXT

During my time at Designworks, one of the main projects I was a part of was the BMW 360 Context, a research program that scans the globe to identify the latest trends and cultural drivers shaping industries and new business behaviors. I was responsible to scout various social, economical, technological, political, and environmental trends, and then analyze and frame opportunities for the future envisioned lifestyle of people for a half year research cycle. I was also responsible to format and design the deliverables and maintain the master files of this project. 

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(Image sourced from the DW website)

Following is an extract from the DW website-

Knowledge to Unlock the Future.

BMW Group Design spends a significant amount of time and energy researching trends, user behavior, and phenomena related to design and its impact on BMW Group product and services.

At Designworks, our ability to track and apply the most up-to-date knowledge from a wide spectrum of industries and cultures gives us the power to define the future of design and give our clients the critical edge over the competition. Through the constant monitoring of design-related phenomena we give our clients a critical advantage that allows them to expand their influence locally and globally. The knowledge assimilated through 360° Trend Scans guides our teams as they work closely with clients to define what’s relevant and what’s next.

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(All Image sourced from the DW website)

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