BMW Alter concept parked on a wet alpine pass road at dusk, front three-quarter view with amber light strips and kidney grilles glowing, mountains and fog behind. AI-assisted render based on the original design.

BMW Alter. A luxury 4x4 with two modes.

A luxury 4x4 with city and off-road modes.

Automotive / Sketching · Automotive Design · Clayton Davis course, SCAD · Summer 2026

AI-assisted renders based on the original design

Project details

Concept: Transformable luxury 4x4
Persona: The Modern Explorer, 18-55
Modes: City and off-road
Body: Midnight Atlantic Blue Metallic, high-gloss
Canopy: 360° smoked panoramic glass
Interior: Front seats rotate 180°, four occupants face each other
Role: Concept, sketching, CMF, rendering
Course: Automotive Design · Clayton Davis course, SCAD
Year: Summer 2026
Tools: Paper sketching, Photoshop

3D viewer

Brief.

A transformable luxury 4x4 concept for BMW, aimed at one driver: urban during the week, escape-ready on weekends. Three directions came out of it, adventure, luxury and urban.

Starting point. Warm-ups before the concept.

Ellipses, wheels and early car sketches came first, to get proportion under control.

Warm-up sheet with ellipses, perspective boxes, wheel studies and early car sketches

Early sketch and shading practice

Ellipses, wheel and perspective warm-ups, then the first car sketches. The page carries one line: building confidence in proportion, perspective and value before developing the final concept.

Three directions. Adventure, luxury, urban.

One brief, three mood boards, each with its own sheet of sketches.

Three design directions (adventure, luxury, urban) with mood boards and car sketches

01 Adventure, 02 Luxury, 03 Urban

Each direction has a mood board and a sheet of car sketches. They share the brief and almost nothing else: adventure is rugged and tall, luxury is low and quiet, urban is compact.

Persona. The Modern Explorer, 18 to 55.

One driver, urban during the week and escape-ready on weekends.

Persona and brand

The Modern Explorer is an affluent professional, 18 to 55, with an urban and outdoor lifestyle. Alter had to offer that person three things: luxury, freedom and adaptability.

I checked every idea against BMW's own terms, performance, precision and driving pleasure, so the concept still read as a BMW.

Exterior sketch. Adventure and luxury in one body.

I merged the first two directions and sketched the exterior in marker.

Exterior line sketches and marker renderings of the chosen mixed direction

The direction I chose

I developed a mix of adventure and luxury. It tied luxury to off-road capability, and the driver never had to give up one for the other.

Exterior renders. On-road and off-road, side by side.

Both modes rendered next to the paper and Photoshop sketches they came from.

Final exterior sheet with on-road and off-road mode renders and a sketch column

From sketch to render

The sheet puts the on-road render and the off-road render on either side of a column of sketches, some on paper and some in Photoshop. The body is the same, the stance changes.

Exterior CMF. Midnight blue, carbon, titanium.

One table lists each exterior area with its colour, material, finish and reason.

Exterior colour, material and finish table with swatches

Colour, material, finish

The body is Midnight Atlantic Blue Metallic, high-gloss, deep enough to read almost black in shadow. Exposed carbon fibre in a satin finish lowers the visual weight, and brushed titanium protects the wheel arches off-road.

The canopy is deep smoked panoramic glass. Champagne titanium and warm LED add a small, jewellery-like contrast against the blue.

Interior sketch. Cabin, seats and console.

Sketches of the cabin layout, the seats and the centre console.

Interior sketches: cabin layout, seats and console details

Inside the cabin

The interior sketches work out the layout that makes the transformation possible: seats that rotate and a console that can become a table.

Interior renders. City and lounge configurations.

The interior rendered in its two seating layouts.

City and lounge

In city mode the seats face forward. In lounge mode the front seats rotate 180° so four occupants face each other.

Interior CMF. Ivory Nappa, cognac and walnut.

A second table covers the cabin materials and what each one is for.

Interior colour, material and finish table with swatches

Colour, material, finish

The cabin runs on warm ivory perforated Nappa with cognac bolsters. The dashboard is matte espresso leather, so the glass canopy doesn't throw reflections. A smoked walnut table gives it a furniture feel.

The floor is wool carpet in city mode. In off-road mode, magnetic panels cover it against mud and water.

City to off-road. One vehicle, two modes.

The page compares both modes outside and shows the interior sequence.

Transformation from city mode to off-road mode, exterior and interior

City mode and off-road mode

City mode has covered wheels, a lower ride height and clean luxury surfaces. Off-road mode exposes the wheels, raises the suspension and adds ground clearance.

Inside, the sequence runs Drive, Rotate, Face, Table, Protect. The front seats turn, the console becomes a table, and protective panels deploy over the floor.