Ever since it revealed its huge grille on the new M3 and M4, BMW has had an oddly adversarial relationship with its social media following. Now it has placed its head of design, Domagoj Dukec, out into the public eye to defend his team’s work.

Speaking to Top Gear in a pretty pointed interview and to Esquire in a paid advertorial, Dukec defends his designs while stating that BMW has a plan for the future.

We should say, early on, that one of the things the advertorial appears to be doing is trying to make us emotionally connect to Dukec through an anecdote about his kindergarten days. And it’s worth remembering that Dukec is a human and that being relentlessly dunked on sucks. It’s okay not to like his designs. It’s also okay to remember that he has feelings because he appears to be reading what we’re writing.

See: BMW X7’s Grille Comically Dwarfs The E30 3-Series’ Kidneys

“I’m reading social media and press, and I can see that some people are wondering where BMW is heading, but I can assure you that we have a clear vision about where we’re going,” Dukec told Top Gear. “We all love the brand.”

So it seems that all the criticism is having an impact. On the other hand, he’s adamant that good design isn’t about pretty or ugly.

Speaking to TG, the BMW design chief reminded us of the mid-2000s Bangle-era E60 5-Series saying that while its styling was “so criticized” at the time, it is now “looked back on with fondness”.

“That was breaking with everything so far [up to that point], Dukec told the UK publication. “Now, this is a special time. It is different and distinguished [the new cars], I think this is something we are used to. It is not our goal to please everyone in the world. You can’t make a design which pleases everyone. But you have to please your customers,” he added.

He essentially supported the same thing in the advertorial. “What is pretty? You will never design anything that 100% of people will like,” he said in Esquire. “It’s not possible, because people have such different tastes and needs. So it’s not about taste, but about gauging what a customer actually desires, or what they could desire in the future.”

In the same piece, Dukec pointed out that a good designer doesn’t always care what people think. “I always admired Karl Lagerfeld for what he did at Chanel, but also for his attitude. He didn’t care what people thought. Because the truth is, if you want to create something that is really daring or bold, people will follow if you’re confident enough to know what the brand deserves.”

Also Read: BMW’s Attempt To Patronize Critics Of The New iX With “OK, Boomer” Is A Very Risky Move

In both pieces, he suggests that not every design in BMW’s fleet is for the same person. Things like the 3-Series have been penned for the brand’s traditional customer. But some of the wilder stuff has been designed for a group that makes up a smaller, but no less important part of BMW’s customer base.

“Not all our products get the same critics,” Dukec said. “You can see that on something as polarizing like the kidneys on the 4-Series, 20 percent of people are liking it. That fits to the type of customers we are targeting.”

See Also: Can We Fix The New BMW Grille Without Changing Its Size?

Again, though, in both pieces, Dukec sounds a little defensive, stressing that automotive design is actually really hard, which is fair. Not only do you have to create something distinctive, the amount of time it takes to develop a car means that you have to design something that will look good in the future.

“In 2021, we are making design decisions for products that will come into the market in 2024,” he said. “And those will then remain in the market for seven or eight years, so beyond 2030.”

To Dukec’s credit, designing a new BMW does seem like taking on the Batman role. No matter what you do some people will be angry. But former BMW designer Frank Stephenson pointed out in a video recently that there are a few BMW design tenets that Dukec’s team seems to have ignored.

The BMW design boss doesn’t really seem to disagree.

“Early on in my career, there were always rules, almost design laws,” he said in the Esquire piece. “But later on I learned that, actually, there are no rules. Everything is possible.”

Whether or not you agree, customers certainly haven’t started leaving the brand, as sales were down just 2% in 2020, despite adverse conditions. So, for now anyway, the designs don’t seem to be turning people away. It will be interesting to see if that continues as the design language matures.