A rare look at the inner workings of the Mercedes-Benz design studio

The team at Mercedes-Benz has the technology - and the enthusiasm - for intelligent design. We tour Daimler AG's workshop in Germany to see the car of the future.

Gorden Wagener, head of design, Daimler AG. Courtesy: Daimler AG

‘For me, luxury means not having my emails come through to my mobile phone,” says Gorden Wagener, the head of design at Daimler AG.

Ah, if only we could all say that. For Wagener, the true meaning of “luxury” is something of a daily concern.

Never heard of Daimler AG? It’s actually the 13th-largest car manufacturer in the world and has been around for more than a century, but you’re possibly more familiar with the company it owns and which, in this region at least, is the very epitome of luxury for many: Mercedes-Benz.

Wagener and his dynamic team of designers have opened up their creative space to outsiders for the first time and there was only one Middle East publication invited along to see for itself the inner sanctum, where the vehicles we buy, run and admire are actually sketched out and turned into production realities. And Mercedes-Benz is on a mission, fuelled by the imaginations of these immensely talented individuals, to gradually transform itself from what Wagener describes as a “traditional luxury company” into a “modern one”.

That might seem rather self-deprecating but he’s right. Think Mercedes and the likelihood is that you conjure up images of old-school dependability, rock-solid reliability and boxy transportation for state officials. That’s slowly changing and Wagener, who has been the head of design since mid-2008, is introducing more fluid shapes that appeal to younger buyers. And if you think that what a car looks like doesn’t matter then Wagener would like a word with you.

“There isn’t really such a thing as a ‘bad’ car anymore, so design is more vital now than ever,” he says. “The definition of luxury changes all the time. After the war, something as simple as a block of butter or a pair of nylons was deemed to be a luxury, but look how things have changed for the majority. We, as designers, have to define the future – when we turn up at the studio, we have to set our watches five years ahead.”

The demands and expectations that we, as car buyers, have these days are frankly preposterous when we consider what was the norm only a few years ago. Get yourself inside a Mercedes-Benz S-Class that’s just a decade old and you’ll see what I mean. Surfaces that are made of tough, leather-effect plastic, rather mean strips of veneered timber, perhaps a CD player and some rudimentary navigation equipment have given way to today’s S-Class interior, which is the last word in opulence: swooping surfaces covered in supple leathers, swathes of gorgeous, contemporary woods, wide computer screens that serve as a dashboard, 3-D navigation, voice-recognition software and internet connectivity. You could probably sell your house and move into an S-Class instead, although a bathroom is yet to be offered on the options list.

“Modern luxury can be more than pure material, it can be an experience. But the materials you see in our cars need to be authentic, which in itself is an experience,” says Wagener. “Real woods, metals, glass and leathers – they provide an experience and they’re all things we use nowadays.

“Of course, your definition might relate to simplicity and we take that into consideration, too. Bauhaus started it and while there’s a fine line to be drawn between minimalism and Spartan design, we try to keep our cars simple. Bang & Olufsen has the same approach – simple, elegant and modern.”

As he admits, cars are changing more now and at a faster pace than at any time in the past 50 years. And the biggest changes relate to the application of technology, with car buyers – even those at the upper reaches – becoming more and more obsessed with internet connectivity through their cars’ infotainment systems. Long gone are the days when you could waltz into a car accessory shop and simply upgrade your cassette player to one with a graphic equaliser – now cars really are mobile concert halls, fitted with integral sound systems, bespoke designed and fitted by the likes of Naim, Bowers & Wilkins and the aforementioned Bang & Olufsen.

These same systems double up as Blu-ray players and televisions (for passengers), satellite navigation, web portals and telephones. You can receive emails, voice messages and texts through them and use them to adjust your car’s mechanical settings. You want your seats to recline, give you a massage and cool your derrière at the same time? No problem, there’s a touchscreen for that. The same even goes for the vehicle’s suspension settings and the way its engine delivers its power – all of it can be accessed, altered and programmed via the same screen that’s situated in the middle of your dashboard.

“I am a big fan of this technology,” Wagener confesses. “But while we see increasing demand for it, we’re also seeing customers with a demand for analogue interfaces.”

“These people,” he continues, “have a fondness for mechanical wristwatches, vinyl records and old-fashioned cameras and, while they want the tech, they also want it delivered in an intelligent design. These opposites – intelligence and emotion, approachable and exclusive, pure and sensual, pedigreed yet progressive – we have to incorporate them all and they have to work together.”

In any modern Mercedes-Benz, beauty and efficiency have to go hand in hand. Wagener says that every line must have a reason and that many of us have a fondness for classic cars because they tend to be more rounded in shape. “Round shapes are attractive to humans, we don’t really like flat surfaces and the current S-Class is a good example of our current design direction.”

The flagship model and mainstay of the brand’s vast range, the latest S-Class is unrecognisable from the boxy, ungainly model that carried the badge in the mid-1990s. That car – like others in the range – looked like it was designed with an over-reliance on a set square and Wagener, while understandably unwilling to dismiss previous designs, is clearly trying to right past wrongs.

“You know, because of technology, we actually have much more freedom with design. Just consider the headlamp – never before have we had headlamp designs; they used to be round with a bulb inside and that was that. Now, thanks to LED technology, we have an entire department dealing with just this one aspect. We are able to take influences from the fashion industry and headlamps now appear as jewellery on the faces of cars,” says Wagener.

That influence of fashion is obvious when looking around the central design studio. Walls are adorned with photographs, sketches, clothing stitch details, accessories – you name it and, if it’s setting new trends, it’s there for visual reference and stimuli.

“The key to truly great design when it comes to luxury cars,” says Wagener, “is that it makes you feel like you have to have it. You want to cherish it, look after it, turn around to look at it when you’ve parked up for the night and keep it to pass it on to your kids.”

And with that, he escorts us outside, in between summer rainstorms, to view his team’s latest work: the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT. This is a sports car with which Mercedes-Benz intends to woo customers away from their Porsche 911s and their Audi R8s and it’s the first time anyone outside the company has seen it without any camouflage.

Unfortunately, no photography is permitted as the car’s official unveiling will take place later this year, but it’s obvious this is the distillation of everything Wagener has been talking about for the past couple of hours.

Low, wide and squat, with a long bonnet and a rounded rump, it’s like a Jaguar F-Type has mated with a Porsche 911 and this is their offspring. True to the company’s new design philosophy, there are no straight lines but there’s enough of a nod to its heritage for there to be no mistake about who made it. Both inside and out, it’s modern yet traditional, intelligent yet emotional, pure yet sensual and yes, pedigreed yet progressive.

We all take for granted the efforts that industrial designers put into the objects we see and use every day. But a few hours in the company of those very people are enough to make you stop, take off your hat and offer them a deferential nod. Without them and their eye for the most miniscule of details, a car would simply be a box on wheels – like most were just a couple of decades ago. Now it’s the very embodiment of luxury in all its forms and, if Mercedes-Benz has anything to do with it, there’ll be no turning back.