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Garrett Grainger

UX Designer

Currently

Interaction Designer & Project Lead, BMW Group

Innovation & Emerging Technology, since 2023. Building and shipping AI, AR/VR, and web products across BMW's global operations.

Education

BFA, User Experience Design

Minor in Graphic Design. Savannah College of Art & Design, 2019–2023. Magna cum laude.

Selected

Featured

Index

Works

Three bodies of work. Hover a block to see what's inside, or scroll down for everything.

Garrett Grainger walking through a granite colonnade in a black t-shirt and sunglasses
Garrett Grainger · Greenville, SC

About Garrett

I'm an interaction designer at BMW Group in Greenville, SC. I turn complex business needs into products people can actually use, with a focus on spatial computing, AI interfaces, and motion storytelling.

Recently I helped take BMW's configurator into ChatGPT, from the first pretotype trailer that built support across departments to an app now live in Germany.

Away from the screen, I've been getting into photography and coffee. It's the same habit of noticing small details, which is why you'll find a few of my favorite landscapes around this site.

Focus

  • Conversational & AI UXAI
  • AR / VR & spatial interfacesXR
  • Motion & video storytellingMotion
  • Rapid prototyping in design systemsProto

Currently

Interaction Designer & Project Lead, BMW Group

Innovation & Emerging Technology · Oct 2023 – Present

I build and ship AI, AR/VR, and web products across BMW's global operations, working in the Density design system alongside development, and produce the concept trailers that turn early research into funded projects.

  • Impossible BatteryGlobal deployment, 2024–2025
  • Customer CompanionLive in ChatGPT, 2026
  • Smart Eyes6 departments, 2025

Education

BFA, User Experience Design

Savannah College of Art & Design · 2019–2023

Minor in Graphic Design. Graduated magna cum laude, Dean's List. Studio work with BMW and Deloitte Digital through SCADpro, plus the case studies below.

  • Eutopia2023
  • BMW × SCADpro2023
  • TIERS2023
  • Hushpup2021
  • American Express Amplify2023

Resume

Open PDF ↗

Interaction designer in BMW's Innovation & Emerging Technology group. Known for rapid prototyping, strong UI craft, and concept trailers that turn early research into funded, cross-departmental projects.

Experience

BMW Group · Interaction Designer & Project Lead

Oct 2023 – Present

Innovation & Emerging Technology. Additional projects are under NDA and happy to discuss in interview.

Impossible Battery · AR/VR technician training
2024–2025
Sole designer + PMGlobal deploymentFeatured by Meta
  • Led stakeholder discovery and turned business requirements into scoped tasks for a cross-functional dev team.
  • Observed live technician training and mapped the full repair flow step by step as the team's source of truth.
  • Designed the core interaction system: virtual toolbox UI, tool-to-part logic, and assembly signifiers, validated in technician usability tests.
  • Designed three training modes (Practice, Repair, Troubleshoot) plus a teaching-aid Impossible Mode, with gamified repair orders tracking live labor costs.
  • Owned branding, trailers, and stakeholder decks. The department's first project industrialized for global deployment to BMW's EV technicians.
Smart Eyes · AI action detection for plant QA
2025
Sole designer6 departmentsIndustrialized
  • Led research with tenured end-of-line inspectors to fit the solution passively into their existing workflow.
  • Designed the journey for a wearable camera feeding a live inspection model that verifies steps in real time.
  • Built the front-end proof of concept in the Density design system and defined confidence criteria with the ML team to prevent false positives.
  • Designed a self-service video data processor where narrated recordings are transcribed to auto-label training data.
  • Delivered a POC later handed to six departments, each industrializing it for its own production use.
Customer Companion · BMW native app for ChatGPT
2026
Design contributorLive in ChatGPT DE
  • Kicked off the initiative with a pretotype trailer that built early cross-departmental support.
  • Prototyped early concepts in the NEO design system before shipping Phase 1 within OpenAI's design system.
  • Prototyped in-chat experiences, including a configurator rendering model, trim, and color live in conversation.
  • Designed a handoff flow carrying configuration progress into BMW's official configurator.

Earlier

Freelance · UX/UI Designer

Jan 2023 – Aug 2024

Visual identities and interactive prototypes for early-stage startups and small businesses, including the launched site for Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine.

BMW × SCADpro · Art Director & UX Lead

Mar – Jun 2023

Directed visual and UX design for speculative interaction concepts in a multidisciplinary studio team, aligned to BMW's brand and product vision.

Deloitte Digital × SCADpro · UX Designer

Jan – Mar 2023

Built a market-ready digital product concept through user research, persona development, and rapid prototyping.

Education

Savannah College of Art & Design

BFA, User Experience Design
Minor, Graphic Design
Magna cum laude · Dean's List · 2019–2023

Awards

  • European Product Design AwardEuropean Product Design AwardStudent Honor · 2024 · Eutopia
  • IDAInternational Design AwardHonorable Mention · 2023 · Hushpup
  • IndigoIndigo Design Awards16 awards · UX / Interface / Product · 2022 · Hushpup
  • Red DotRed Dot Design AwardNomination · 2022 · Hushpup
  • FLUXathonFLUXathon 24-Hour ChallengeNomination · 2022

Tools

FigmaFigma MCPCode ConnectFigma MakeFigma MotionClaude CodeJiraAfter EffectsPhotoshopIllustrator

Skills

WireframingPrototypingDesign systemsAI/ML literacyStakeholder mgmtVideo editingProject mgmt

Contact

Let's talk design, or coffee.

johnggrainger@gmail.com LinkedIn ↗ Resume ↗
© 2026 Garrett Grainger
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