Behind the Design: Mercedes-Benz’s Gorden Wagener
Gorden Wangener has been the company’s Chief Design Officer since 2016. Photos: Mercedes-Benz
Gorden Wagener is one of the most influential automotive designers in recent times and has headed the global design division of Mercedes-Benz and all its brands since 2008.
He has been the company’s Chief Design Officer since 2016. His goal is to build the most desirable cars in the world for the brands of the Mercedes‑Benz Group.
Wagener approaches this ambition with his design philosophy of “Sensual Purity,” which defines the specific luxury of the different brands. His designs set new impulses in luxury and fulfill a desire for beauty and the extraordinary.
Can you explain how you, as a designer, specifically awaken or present desire?
Important brands are characterised by their own special style - that's what makes the difference. The style of our house, which we have continued to refine over the past 15 years, is our design philosophy of Sensual Purity. It is our aesthetic soul and the core of our brand DNA.
With it, we have created independent product personalities and given all Mercedes brands an unmistakable appearance. Our design language uniquely combines beauty with the extraordinary.
To create tension, for example, we link opposites - this deliberate bipolarity of emotion and intelligence characterises our designs. Beauty forms the emotional core for us - it has its very own magic.
Everything we do must be aesthetic. Beauty fascinates people and exerts a great attraction - all around us: in nature, in art, in fashion - and even in cars. But that alone is not enough for us: We strive to give beauty the additional glamour of the extraordinary. That is what we aim for as Mercedes designers: revolutionary products that touch people emotionally and that people absolutely want to have.
The famous Mercedes SL Gullwing is an icon vehicle for the brand.
How do you interpret Sensual Purity in concrete terms for the individual brands?
The wishes and demands of our customers are manifold, just like the interpretation of luxury. What people understand as luxury varies from person to person. It is about exquisite materials, quality, the best workmanship, traditional craftsmanship, state-of-the-art technologies, and trendsetting design.
We reflect this versatility through our individual brands, which are clearly differentiated from one another in terms of overall appeal, but all bear the signature of our design philosophy of Sensual Purity as a unifying element.
Take Mercedes-AMG, for example, where the focus is clearly on performance. AMG models have an emphatically dynamic, sporty character - and sports cars have always exerted a special fascination that also creates unique desirability.
We use design to create clear identities and differentiation for our individual brands by aligning them more closely with the different demands of customers. Maybach is about the pinnacle of the top-end luxury segment.
That is why we speak of Sophisticated Luxury here. Mercedes‑Benz embodies Modern Luxury of the highest quality. And Mercedes-EQ, our pioneering brand for e-mobility, embodies Progressive Luxury. This differentiation is clearly defined by design.
Mercedes-Benz has always been a luxury brand under whose umbrella many unique icons have been created over the decades – in almost all segments, from the SL to the G-Class. The design creates icons that shape the Mercedes myth and create desirability. We cultivate this heritage in design, develop it further and thus carry it into the future.
The show cars of recent years exemplify the continuous development of our design language – the most recent examples are the VISION EQXX and the Vision AMG, which we are presenting as part of Design Essentials this year.
Wagener’s team covers every model, including the famous G-Class.
You mention the further development of your design philosophy. Can you give us concrete examples?
Sensual Purity is a leitmotif, but not a rigid frame. Of course, we pick up on current trends and developments. At the same time, we establish new trends ourselves with our design, especially with our show cars, and we deliberately put forth provocative and polarising designs.
That development in design goes hand in hand with technological progress. Electrification in particular not only allows different proportions in the exterior but also new design freedom in the interior.
The introduction of state-of-the-art UI/UX systems has also opened up a whole new world for us designers.
MBUX shows what is possible here. It sets standards in all areas: technically, in terms of user-friendliness, and also in terms of design. MBUX is our greatest asset in the field of digital luxury, which has become increasingly important and is an absolute must when we talk about striving for the optimum. Digital luxury is crucial when it comes to staging the luxury of tomorrow and creating desire.
Currently, our focus is on what we call the X-factor: the surprising and extraordinary element with which we want to exceed our customers' expectations. One example: We independently create digital art and bring it into the vehicle. But we consciously develop the topic further, now even completely independent of our vehicles.
We are moving into dimensions where you would not necessarily expect Mercedes-Benz to be. For us as designers, this opens up completely new perspectives and opportunities to develop our creativity. Let us surprise you.
Interview courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
