Daimler’s new Progressive Luxury Aesthetic explained

A design ‘workshop’ can be many things, but most of the time it follows a fairly agreed formula – Daimler’s Design Essentials II workshop in Sindelfingen ticked all the boxes, before going a bit further.

Hosted by Daimler’s enigmatic Chief Design Officer, Gorden Wagener, it was Part II of the Sensual Purity workshop that took place just over a year ago. This time the way the design philosophy is being applied to the new model line-up was explained in a lot of detail, with the new A-Class on display, plus a preview of the new GLE interior, the recently-launched Maybach concept and the EQ and AMG ranges too.

Gorden Wagener had an injured leg (horse-riding accident) but he welcomed journalists from the world’s press to the workshops, saying: “These days, it is not only about the product. My responsibility is about staging the brands as leading luxury brands, this needs a holistic approach – so everything that touches the brand (show rooms, cars, show stands) but also digital… our goal is to create every touchpoint of the consumer for everything we design.”

While this approach isn’t exclusive to Daimler, it does support the theory that design is becoming more important for OEMs – showing the workings of design is becoming more important to car buyers as we move towards an EV future where powertrains are all similar.

We think that the fact that Daimler ran a day-long, complex workshop (over three consecutive days for different international journalists) with a lot of detail about the design process and choices broken down by brand, is rather remarkable. Would this have happened ten or even five years ago?

Wagener with four sculptures symbolising the different feel of Daimler’s four brand pillars

Before exiting on crutches, Gorden’s obvious ease with public speaking and events infused the workshop with an informal atmosphere you don’t often get in design studios, particularly as a journalist. But CDN has spent the last year working with a few in the design department at Daimler to produce a special project – a Car Design News book for Daimler, which was given to journalists at the end of the workshop.

The Global Travel Log was a peek at the design department, the studio, people and work they do. It was a joint special project – we do them every so often, as subscribers to Interior Motives will know – so we know a bit about Daimler’s design department and were not expecting to be taking so many notes… but the information and detail came thick and fast. A coherent explanation (with lots of visual material) of where each brand sits on the Hot to Cool spectrum, was followed by a more in-depth presentation and discussion with the designers involved with the various brands.

‘Aesthetics Progressive Luxury’ references both historic streamliners and future premium design

Daimler’s designers have clearly been thinking a lot about what a modern interpretation of luxury looks like, and how that marries with bleeding-edge technology. They have been designing one of the best user interaction systems on the market (MBUX launched at CES last year and reviewed by Joe Simpson and in the new A-Class by Lem Bingley here for CDN).

In addition to the new MBUX system though, the whole brand strategy seems to have evolved. The design is still anchored in Sensual Purity, but ‘luxury’ was the keyword for this workshop. How does Daimler create ‘progressive luxury’?

One answer was seen in a preview of the new GLS interior, which frames a large touchscreen in flowing forms and a stitched leather and tactile wood environment. Hartmut Sinkwitz, Director of Interior Design at Daimler, talked us through the design of the new interior treatment for the GLS. Another interpretation was seen with the divisive Maybach Ultimate Luxury concept, which was launched earlier this year at the Beijing motor show.

But the EQ range is where we gain the most insight into how Daimler’s various brands will design the future of transportation. With the first production car (an SUV) due out this year and a further 10 models planned between now and 2022, the EQ brand is in an exciting phase. How can high-technology brands create lasting value, a sense of the product being special?

Stefano Tam, from Strategic Brand Experience at Daimler said: “We want analogue and digital to merge seamlessly – we take digital elements and translate them to the analogue world to create a positive future.” To help visualise the feeling of the EQ brand, they created a room, showing how a living space would look if the EQ brand aesthetics were applied to it. There would be a bright atmosphere which is warmed with dark wood and a coppery gold.

To express the brand aesthetic, Daimler’s designers created rooms for EQ, AMG, Mercedes and Maybach. The EQ rooms colour scheme, a combination of black, silver and white with accents in typically brilliant EQ blue characterises a future-oriented technology brand

“Design transfers technology into an experience,” said Gorden, “Our understanding of luxury changes over time – we want to create progressive luxury with the EQ brand…The reduction to the essential conveys modernity and timelessness.”

But at the same time for a luxury brand you need to have craftsmanship to maintain the value over time. “With increasing digitalisation, the analogue elements create sustainable value.” We suspect that is where the real challenge for car designers lies.

In the EQ, some traditional (or analogue) materials are used, but they are given a different treatment which highlights the technological advances. For instance, leather inserts on the door panels have an intricate pattern cut into them, which is backlit. On the face of the car – the traditional Mercedes grille has been reinterpreted, but is still obviously Mercedes despite the absence of chrome, chamfers, bumpers, etc.

Zane Amiralis from Advanced Digital Graphic Design asked: “How do you make digital information feel valuable?” This is an important question, and one which all car brands will need to tackle as EVs become the norm on the production line.