THE CREW MOTORFEST X BMW LIFESTYLE

In a fresh twist for The Crew Motorfest, Ubisoft Ivory Tower has teamed up with BMW Lifestyle and stichd to bring a new layer of style to the game. This fresh collaboration brings a brand-new BMW Lifestyle collection directly into the game, blending automotive design with virtual reality. As part of this unique partnership, we've designed an exclusive vehicle inspired by BMW's iconic "Erlkönig" pattern---the BMW M3 E30 Sport Evolution Erlkönig Edition. This isn't just a car; it's a complete lifestyle experience that embodies BMW's design ethos and enhances the immersive world of The Crew Motorfest.

In this article, we sit down with Charles-Arthur Bourget, Senior Business Developer, Tareq Mousli, Lead Character/Animation, Jérémy Sachot, Senior Vehicle Designer from Ubisoft Ivory Tower, plus Stephen Gambie, Lifestyle Creative Director and Lloyd Sedman, Senior Apparel Designer from stichd, to explore how this partnership came to life. From the initial idea to overcoming creative challenges, discover how this unique collaboration enhances the world of The Crew Motorfest, blending the thrill of gaming with the unmistakable style of BMW.      

How did the idea for this exclusive partnership come about?

Charles-Arthur Bourget: It all began during a call with all BMW licensees where I learnt about BMW endeavor into lifestyle. Cloth pieces looked appealing and connected with BMW history. I thought our players could wear them - in the game and in real life. I raised my hand and asked if Ubisoft Ivory Tower could help promote this new activity.  A few weeks later I was in Portugal meeting with the different teams involved and taking a better look at the collections which confirmed that it was brilliant design, connected with car culture and with the right vibe for our players.

Stephen Gambie: Honestly, it was a bit of a lucky break. We happened to cross paths with Ubisoft at a BMW Product Brand Experience event in Portugal. The event, hosted by the BMW CB-33 Lifestyle Team, was a licensing summit where key partners shared projects. After the formal meetings, a more relaxed conversation at the hotel bar revealed that we had the potential to collaborate on something exciting together.

Can you share the essence of the capsule collection created for this partnership?

SG: The collection is rooted in the creative essence of BMW M---like the Erlkönig pattern and the vibrant Sao Paulo yellow. We dove deep into BMW's production process and had countless conversations with different teams and product owners at BMW. Being curious helps a lot and having good contacts to access different areas is super important, as you can imagine BMW are very secretive about what is coming through!  When the creative elements are defined the stichd lifestyle team look at wider street trends to how these elements can be applied into different garments and accessories. At this point the collection starts to take shape.

What emotions and passions went into creating these pieces?

SG: When we work on BMW M Lifestyle products, we aim to elevate the details and quality, ensuring that the designs and fit are on par with the best in the industry. This means using an oversized fit to help define your look, using 270gsm organic cotton for durability, and finishing with an embossed M logo---just like BMW does in their production. I really encourage people to pick it up and wear one, then you will notice the difference, the products we produce going beyond being a promotional merch.

Lloyd Sedman: When we create product for our BMW collections we must have an authentic reason for them to exist.  All the graphical details within this collection are inspired by physical entities within the BMW world. The distinctive black and white camouflage Erlkönig protype pattern, the Yellow paintwork, the seamless organic cloud pattern captured at macro detail within the manufacturing plant, are all details which resonate with us as entirely unique to the power house of BMW.

How were the clothing items and accessories brought to life in The Crew Motorfest?

LS: The BMW Lifestyle team is built from individuals with a broad toolset. Our process to create garments see's our key inspiration evolve from idea to sketch, to digital model, to physical garment. Our craftspeople include, story tellers, traditional pattern cutters, sample makers, digital garment modelers, and digital artists. In this case our collaboration with the The Crew Motorfest team took our process one step further bringing to life our physical garment in the digital reality of this awesome game environment.

Tareq Mousli: After selecting the outfit to produce for the game, we first had to discuss and identify what made those clothes unique in order to recreate them in the game with the closest possible feeling to the original items. Communication was a key to bring those outfits to life in The Crew Motorfest, and for the Character Art team Lloyd was astonishingly helpful! Considering our very different workflows, having a constant back and forth with feedback and references allowed us to produce the game models and textures within our pipeline, overcoming the video game technical constraints while still maintaining a high quality and more importantly the visual identity of each item.

What challenges did you face to capture their essence and detail?

LS: To ensure that the digital twins of our physical garments were as lifelike as possible, we worked closely with TCM digital animation team to get the shape and silhouette working within the restraints of the environment.  We worked hard to make sure our digital garment geometry and visualization maps was optimised to work hard and fast during game play.

TM: The most interesting challenge for our team was to preserve the identity of the BMW outfits while still keeping them compatible with what already exists in the game. Our outfits have some precise rules for them to work together. That's what allows the player to customize their avatar however they want, it was interesting to see how far we could go with that. Oversized clothes, for example, can also be tricky to deal with when it comes to some character animations, that was something to constantly keep in mind while working on those outfits.

Can you tell us the story behind this special edition of the BMW M3 E30 Sport Evolution?

SG: Tough Question, why pick the M3 E30. When exploring the BMW history, it is super hard sometimes to find focus and not to be distracted or overwhelmed because there are so many important iconic cars that have launched across their history... So, to support the process I have been lucky enough to meet the BMW Classic Team and walk through the private car park to check out their "back catalogue" of cars!  Impressive lineup in the garage and some equally impressive parking skills as the cars are all neatly lined up, super close.  During one visit the conversation led to the M3 E30 and how there is a strong community that really focus on this specific model, I guess that this was the moment for me to understand a little more and dive a little deeper into this world... very quickly you see how important this to BMW community and the diversity within the groups.  The potential of M3 E30 collection was huge. But the tipping point and my personal take on it, is that it is maybe this car is the defining moment that gives BMW credibility and a voice in a street lifestyle culture. They took track performance and engineered into something that everyone can drive on the streets, the rest is history really and times shows that this car has the ability to be continuously relevant.

Jérémy Sachot: This in turn created the opportunity to revisit a BMW classic. We wanted to create an aggressive restomod version that would modernize the look of the car while paying respect to its distinctive design characteristics. We first identified those defining traits that we wanted to preserve or build around: the 4-light bumper with the traditional BMW kidneys, the Evo wing and the coloured band that wraps around the car. To represent the connection to racing technology we took our inspiration from DTM cars when modelling the wide body kit. It's funny to think that this car features race technology made accessible to street car owners and we tuned it into the ultimate driving machine to race on track. The livery was also critical. It had to match the BMW Lifestyle street vibe and give the car attitude. Using the Erlkönig pattern to magnify the car when it's originally supposed to hide it was no small feat. Our Brand Content team which has experience in advertising and graphic trends pulled through and came up with an asymmetric graphic design elegantly built along the racing lines on top of the vehicles to give the E30 Erlkonig Ed. an irreverent look.

What makes it a unique symbol of this collaboration?

SG: The project for me professionally really sees the virtual gaming environment cross over the physical street lifestyle industry and challenge the perceptions that they can coexist.  What we can realize virtually and what we can experience in reality can cross over to create a more hybrid world... and would challenge the limiting belief that they are separated. Naturally my curious mind meant that I was keen to visit to the Ubisoft crew in Lyon and just see how they are set up. What I saw blew my mind and Ieft challenging myself to me consider how my team work. A great collaboration partner opens up the conversation and moves things forwards.

How do you hope this collaboration resonates with the dreams and passions of your audience?

CAB: Dream big, do cool things with friends in games and outside. It would mean a lot if this could ignite the spark for somebody to become a vehicle designer or a stylist.

SG: Keep playing, keep defining your style, and maybe take a moment to check out the collection in real life. You might be surprised at how closely your in-game avatar and real-world style can align.

From August 28th to September 3rd, dive into the game to explore this unique partnership with BMW Lifestyle, featuring the exclusive in-game apparel collection and the BMW M3 E30 Sport Evolution Erlkönig Edition. A bonus in-game look with the Erlkönig gilet and discount code to BMW Lifestyle webshop will be offered to buyers of that E30 Special Edition until the end of Season 4. For those who want to bring this style into their everyday lives, the full BMW Lifestyle collection is available for purchase here. Don't miss out on the chance to connect your virtual and real-world styles in a way that's never been done before!