Kia has hired an important new member of staff. The South Korean brand appoints Won Kyu Kang as head of the ‘Kia Design Innovation Group’, the department responsible for future design strategy. Kang previously worked at BMW, where he designed the 3.0 CSL Hommage concept, among other things.
As Director of the Kia Design Innovation Group, Won Kyu Kang will play a key role in what the Kias of the future will look like. The department is responsible for planning new designs and outlining future design strategy. Kia has its own design departments in every region, but in the end everything comes together in the central Kia Design Center in South Korea, of which the Innovation Group is an important part. Kang awaits a pretty tough task, because although Kia has made a considerable leap in design in recent years, it wants to expand the EV offer considerably in the future.
Kang brings the necessary experience, as he has been working as a designer for 15 years. He started as an interior designer at Hyundai, but only worked there for a year. Then he went to work for BMW. From 2005 to 2015 he worked there as an exterior designer, where he drew the 3.0 CSL Hommage concept. Does the grille of that concept car perhaps remind you of a current BMW? Kang then spent two more years as Senior Exterior Designer in Munich, before moving to BMW Group Designworks in Shanghai. Designworks is a creative department of BMW that comes up with exciting and sometimes unconventional solutions for the future. From that position Kang goes to work for Kia.