Dodge Designer Puts BMW’s New Kidney Grille To Good Use

Over the years, one of the biggest talking points surrounding any new BMW release has been its now-infamous kidney grille designs. To say that the German carmaker has pushed the boundaries with their grille sizes would be an understatement. They may not be to everyone’s taste, but that hasn’t stopped BMW from persisting with them. And while there are quite a few corners of the internet that aren’t exactly happy with the way BMW’s design has been evolving, there are a fair few out there who see the missed opportunities instead.

This brings us to Mo Ismail, who decided to take a set of BMW’s kidney grilles and reimagine them on what looks to be a 4×4 off-road pickup truck. The illustration is on his Instagram page and is a potent reminder of the power of good automotive design.

What Mo Ismail Envisioned

The sketch artist in question, Mo Ismail, is no ordinary doodler. He happens to be the Creative Designer for Jeep, Chrysler, and RAM Trucks for Stellantis North America. His Instagram page isn’t just populated with Stellantis content, though, as the BMW 4×4 pickup illustrates.

According to Mo, the sketch came about because he was experimenting with automotive software tools like Gravity Sketch, which is a 3D sketching and design software, and Vizcom. He went on to say in the caption that his concepts were done with the help of artificial intelligence software, and that this particular rendering took him only 30 minutes to dream up.

With artificial intelligence impacting ever more fields, including the automotive industry, it’s only natural that designers like Mo would experiment with them sooner or later. According to him, using AI is something that every designer should do, but making it unique and different is up to the individual.

His sketch certainly goes on to prove just that, with his identity clearly coming across in the rendering. Interestingly enough, Mo also rendered another BMW design. The second was also done using Gravity Sketch and Vizcom, and is his take on an M-branded dune buggy, which definitely counts as one of the more extreme versions we’ve come across.

RELATED: Digital Artist Gives His Thoughts On The Controversial “Kidney” Grille Of The 2023 BMW M4 CSL

The Future Of BMW Kidney Grilles

Since we’re on the topic of BMW’s kidney grilles, and how they tend to dominate their cars, the news is that BMW’s grilles are set to get bolder.

BMW’s design chief has admitted that every new model from the carmaker will feature a unique kidney grille. According to designs submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the German carmaker seems to have envisioned a front fascia for its cars which appear to be one big unit that extends across its width and houses the headlights on either end.

This is obviously something that BMW is doing with an eye to the future. A panel like this will incorporate more safety features like radars and sensors integrated behind it. And depending on the settings, the entire grille might also turn opaque and transparent at the click of a button.

There’s also a patent that will supposedly allow future BMW grilles to change colors (not to be confused with BMW’s lit grille). The designs that BMW submitted to WIPO resonate with the carmaker’s thinking when it showed the i Vision Dee concept at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. This concept was built on the Neue Klasse platform and is aimed at showing what BMW aims to do with its EVs in the future.

In case you were wondering, the Dee stands for “Digital emotional experience”. The concept has a range of future tech, including what BMW calls E Ink technology, which allows the car the ability to change color. According to BMW, the headlights and the front grille of the i Vision Dee will also form a “Phygital” (physical and digital) icon that will replace the analog elements.

RELATED: BMW iX Crossover Looks Electrifying, Except For The Kidney Grilles

Whether this goes down well with BMW loyalists is something that remains to be seen, but it all depends on how BMW executes its plan with respect to the future of its grilles. Design elements, however, are a very subjective matter, and what can be said with certainty is that however much certain corners of the internet denounced their rather large grilles initially, people got used to them eventually and sales of BMWs reveal that people are buying them more than ever. This is still BMW, after all, and however polarizing their grilles might be, their cars are still as technically sound and potent as ever.