MINI is celebrating a quarter-century of design work since the modern car arrived under the BMW Group in 2001. To mark the occasion, the company has released a six-minute video, “From the Original to the Original – 25 Years of MINI Design”, on the BMW Group YouTube channel. It traces the journey from Alec Issigonis’s 1959 Classic Mini to today’s electric MINI Cooper, and the design decisions that kept the brand’s character intact.
MINI is looking back on 25 years of design history under the BMW Group. The milestone is tied to a new film, “From the Original to the Original – 25 Years of MINI Design”, now streaming on the BMW Group YouTube channel, which sets out how the brand carried the spirit of the Classic Mini into a modern era without turning it into a nostalgia piece.
Preserving the soul, not copying it
The central challenge, according to the company, was reinventing a design legend without losing what made it special. The Classic Mini had stayed largely unchanged for four decades before the BMW Group relaunched the brand in 2001.
“The Mini remained virtually unchanged for 40 years. It was our task as designers to preserve its soul, while leading it into a new era – not as a copy, but as the new MINI with all the signature MINI characteristics,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design.
The video features van Hooydonk alongside Holger Hampf, Head of MINI Design, drawing on design sketches, key decisions and personal recollections. Hampf frames MINI as more than transport — a companion mixing functionality, driving fun, individuality and a cheeky charm. He notes that fans now miss “typically MINI” cues that were themselves introduced only after 2001, a sign of how much the brand has built its own reference points.
“MINI has created its own icons over the years. This work is never finished – we must continue to carry it forward,” says Hampf.
From competition to a new original
After the BMW Group acquired Rover in 1994, designers at BMW and Rover explored competing directions for a new Mini — from a faithful continuation of the original idea to a sportier, more premium reinterpretation. The result, the company says, was a car that evolved from a clever compact into a style icon rather than a retro product: instantly recognisable, but reworked for a new era through technology, design and culture.
When Issigonis created the Classic Mini in 1959, the priorities were efficient use of space, compact proportions, short overhangs, direct driving fun and a likeable character. MINI argues those same fundamentals — round headlights, compact proportions, short overhangs and the signature go-kart feel — still define the brand today, now paired with detailing and personalisation options meant to let owners express themselves.
“No MINI looks like any other. MINI gives people the opportunity to express their lifestyle and tell their own story,” says Hampf.
Charismatic Simplicity and the electric turn
The current MINI Family builds on a design language the brand calls “Charismatic Simplicity”, stripped back to the essentials to sharpen each model’s character while leaving room for customisation. In the MINI Cooper Electric, that shows up in clearly sculpted surfaces, a pared-down body and an interior that echoes the original Mini idea: fewer components, a round central display and a compact steering wheel.
What it means
For buyers, the anniversary is less about a new product than a statement of intent: MINI is signalling that its move into electric and digital motoring will lean on the same recognisable identity that has carried it for 25 years. The year also marks 25 years of production of the modern MINI and its British roots, which the brand will honour with the limited MINI Cooper Oxford Edition.
The six-minute film is available now on the BMW Group YouTube channel.
Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com