The Designers Pt1: Gorden Wagener, Daimler
Mercedes’ VP of design on embracing digital thinking, working as a team and how design is essential in shaping the success of a brand
“Basically we are taking stuff out where others are putting stuff in…”
For me it’s a much higher approach to do more with less lines and just let the proportions work. I think we’ve found a very strong direction with ‘sensual purity’ and ‘modern luxury’. It’s very different to what the competition is doing. We’re going against the mainstream and I think that makes us special right now.
It’s just the work of a few [in terms of project team size] and right now it’s in a good way. You can see it in the sales numbers. We are almost where we expected to be by 2020 already. We’ve seen such an enormous turnaround in the company with one best sales quarter after another, and the main reason for that is design. Is there a burden of expectation with such success? Always. We’re still at the beginning and as a designer you always have to reinvent yourself.
We showed this ‘less is more’ approach in the F 015 concept and again with the IAA concept, which literally does not have any lines any more. It’s refreshing. We came first with the A-Class and people didn’t expect it, they didn’t think we could vary our language. Now they see the puzzle complete they understand it better – moving from the conservative monovolume to something more progressive.
The success can be seen in customers 20 years younger and an 80 percent conquest rate. That was ‘sensual purity one’. Now we’re moving to ‘two’ and the IAA concept car gives a glimpse of ‘three’, but you won’t see that [in production] before the next decade. The IAA’s extendable tail is totally feasible – you see active spoilers on production cars today and the IAA’s aero is not fake, we measured it at 0.19Cd. On the freeway you have space and this is where aerodynamics matter, at 70mph and above. It’s an exciting time, it couldn’t be better in fact. I’m very fortunate to be working in this time.
I’ve never experienced someone coming along and saying: ‘we can take this or that thing out’. The normal way is that we put more content into the cars, relating to safety enhancements and reducing CO2 emissions through new engines. It’s a bit of a problem with the car industry in general that we are damned to put more and more content into the car every year, which costs a lot of money we have to save in other areas. There’s so much money buried under the skin of the car.
Now we see digital thinking and solutions ‘driving’ the car in every way. We’ve just started a new centre for digital and corporate design. Our design goes beyond cars now, we shape brands, we design every touchpoint, whether it be advertising or showroom design or financial reports, everything is designed to the same guidelines. Design is the biggest driver of this digital revolution because you cannot see digital, only design makes it visible. And in the longer term that means more power to design, it’s as simple as that.
Gorden Wagener
Role VP design Mercedes-Benz
Age 47
Nationality German
Location Stuttgart, Germany
Education Essen University and the RCA
Gorden’s top cars of 2015
Concept
1. Porsche Mission E
2. Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6
3. Mazda RX-Vision
Production
1. Jaguar F-Pace
2. Volvo S90
3. Ford GT
Car Design Review 3
This interview is taken from the Car Design Review 3 yearbook. Published annually by the writers of Car Design News, the book rounds up all of the major car-design trends seen in the past 12 months, counts down the best production and concept car designs of the year and features interviews with 18 of the best car designers working today, plus an in-depth interview with Syd Mead, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner.