Everything You Wanted to Know About Gert Hildebrand, And Asked February 04, 2010

YOU asked MINI designer Gert Hildebrand the questions that were on YOUR mind...and Mr. Hildebrand has answered. Now MINI Space gives you a selection of these questions & personal responses from the man himself, for some firsthand insight into what it takes to make your greatest passion into a career. Q from ashlaf: Which superhero would you want to drive a MINI? Gyro Gearloose with his sidekick Little Helper (a small light bulb) were always my greatest heroes as a child. He was the role model for all my ideas, because he always seemed to solve all the problems he encountered. Q from creativseval: What would be the 1 design tip you would give out freely? Less is more - I think less is more is the best design tip. You can't do anything wrong with something you don't design. Man is hardwired to perceive simple things as good, because they don't try to snatch attention with artificial gimmicks. Which makes the rule of less is more the most demanding craft. It is easy to design something fascinating and beautiful with a great deal of effect and hoopla, but it's very difficult to do so with very little. MINI lives off this tension of less is more: Simple design and a simple body that together with tension-laden details such as lights, rims and a centre speedo, combine to produce the typical MINI design. Summary: Less is more is my favourite design rule. Q from mtarkhov: What inspires you when working on new MINI projects? Maybe some music, visuals, just simple everyday things? Inspiration comes from the inside. If you are lucky enough to have been given a talent for creativity, it's something very valuable. This applies to all fields, whether it's dancing, music, design, painting, art or sport. Maybe I was lucky enough to pick this talent up somehow or another along the way, and my parents supported that - not least my father, with an intensive indoctrination into cars. If you grow up like that, inspiration comes from day to day events. Personally, I don't need California, Bali, the west coast of Hawaii or some mountain hiking experience to be inspired. Inspiration always comes from the inside, regardless of where you are, whether it's Buxtehude or Tübingen. But of course, you have to be open to other people, even in a situation of conflict. You should always walk through the world with your eyes open. Travel teaches you a lot, too. If you are very flexible and take a look around the world, not just as a tourist on holiday, but in daily life, then inspiration will come about of its own accord. A conversation, for example, can inspire me just as much as a view over a scrap yard. There are, of course, formative experiences in relation to music from my younger days, when I was in Canada. Renaissance or Blood, Sweat & Tears concerts, for example, but of course they are all bands that today are old classics. Today, the type of music my seven-year-old daughter listens to, Tokio Hotel, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson, naturally also plays a role. This surrounds and accompanies me every day at home. I generally listen to a lot of music, but nothing specific. I really like Mary J. Blige, Johnny Cash and The Doors. Q from Lydran: Every MINI car now on sale has a predecessor, but now there are plans for new cars like an SUV, Coupé and Roadster. Are you scared that it could be impossible to make these new cars into "real" MINIs, because they are too far away from the Mini roots? In principle, the MINI Crossover Concept, and now the MINI Beachcomber Concept, Roadster and Coupe as well, certainly do have historical predecessors. Many people don't know that Mini wasn't merely a product, but an entire label with Riley, Wolseley, Austin and Morris as brands, and with pickups, vans and Mokes as derivatives. If you look closely at history, you could theoretically make a MINI out of every vehicle concept, because it has already been done before. Despite this, we know that for the MINI community, the roots of the brand are still represented by the original - the Mini launched in 1959. The questions from this article were selected from the submissions sent in by our very own MINI Space community for the MINI Design book competition. You can read more about that competition here.