The passion is in the details. A profile of Oliver Sieghart.

Oliver Sieghart has been Head of Interior Design at MINI since 2008. His area of responsibility embraces all the interior equipment and fittings for current and future MINI models – from the seats and steering wheel all the way to the cockpit and doors. His success formula is to generate latitude for creativity. Together with his team of young creative designers, he gives free rein to inventiveness and in doing so defines the way forward. The decisive and innovative design elements are then filtered out and perfected, and the end result is an original, typically MINI design of the utmost precision and quality.

Career path: a straight trajectory towards the target.
The Munich-born designer discovered his penchant for style and aesthetics early on, prompting him to study product design at the Fachhochschule Munich. As part of his diploma project, Sieghart joined BMW as a car designer. In his very first year he won the company’s in-house interior design competition for the BMW Z4 and subsequently saw the model through to successful production. In 2008 Sieghart switched to MINI as Head of Interior Design. For him the particular appeal of this post lies in the challenge of redefining the interior design of such an iconic brand without compromising the familiar MINI character. Under his direction the brand has turned out concept cars like the MINI Rocketman and Clubman Concept, as well as series-produced models including the MINI 3 and 5 door, the MINI Clubman and the MINI Cabrio.

Ideology: anything’s possible.
For Oliver Sieghart a MINI is an emotionally-charged product, made for customers with a discerning lifestyle and sense of aesthetics. The interior design, he believes, should allow for intuitive operation while also taking the driver by surprise. But it is important to Sieghart that every detail should reflect the uniqueness of the brand and at the same time meet the functional brief. The Munich native has no time for design gimmicks that are mere distractions and don’t serve a useful purpose. It is this combination of pragmatism and emotion that he loves about his work for MINI, along with the opportunity to further develop the popular heritage of the brand and take it forward into the modern era.

Personally speaking.
Oliver Sieghart’s passion for design is in his DNA. Inspiring discussions about art with his culturally active parents, along with the furnishings in their house that consisted mainly of design classics, nurtured his passion for aesthetics. As for living within his own four walls, he prefers the plain approach: purist furniture, industrial parquet flooring and light-coloured walls. The reason for this is as pragmatic as the décor itself: Sieghart has two sons and he wants to provide them with freedom of space – to romp around, mess about and build things. Sieghart finds inspiration wherever he looks, whether at exhibitions, trade fairs, on holiday, during stimulating exchanges or when browsing magazines. To free up his mind for completely fresh thoughts, he spends the weekends with his family or takes mountain bike tours from Lake Tegernsee into the Dolomites.