The car designers at Mercedes-Benz are already living in the future. Every day they transpose themselves into the future and develop cars that will only grace the roads in several years’ or even decades’ time. The creative minds of these designers are looking seven to ten years ahead at the coming generation of series models.

The designers at the five Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studios are going even further into the future. They are thinking three decades or more ahead. They all have one common agenda: mobility in the future – taking the Mercedes-Benz design idiom further, forging trends with new, creative ideas, which will ensure a Mercedes continues to look fresh, aesthetic and stylish in the future, without losing the connection to its roots and brand identity. For them, therefore, the future is today.

The first Advanced Design Studio outside Germany opened for work in June 1990 in California. In Carlsbad today, occupying some 1200 square metres of floor space, designers and modellers develop their thoughts and ideas on the exteriors of vehicles of tomorrow and beyond. The centre regularly exchanges ideas and creative impulses with its sister studios in Tokyo and Sindelfingen. The fourth studio in Como (Italy) concerns itself exclusively with the interiors of future vehicles. The Villa Salazar, not far from the shores of Lake Como, was where that giant of the fashion world, Gianni Versace, once produced ties and bow ties. The most recently-opened Advanced Design Studio is located in Beijing.

The person with responsibility for all the studios is Professor Gorden Wagener, the Chief Designer for Mercedes-Benz. In addition to the 440 designers working on model series there are more than 60 designers developing concepts to take Mercedes-Benz up to half a century into the future.

"We don’t blindly follow fashion," explains Wagener. "Instead„ we try to divine long-term trends which will increase the value of our brand for decades to come. Ideas that fulfil the very highest standards as far as engineering, technology, performance, comfort and safety are concerned." For this reason, a designer has to "live in the future" and think at least two to three generations of vehicles ahead. The Advanced Design Studios are thus creative spaces in which designers can give free rein to their ideas without having to think immediately about the demands of series production. "The wonderful thing about design is that there is a visible outcome to what you are doing. First the model, then the real thing, in numbers, on the road. Actually driving the car is a really special moment. That’s what makes working in this industry, and working for Mercedes-Benz so special," enthuses Wagener.

The creative minds at work on the interior design for new vehicles in Como are very receptive to the influences of the region. The famed triangle between Como, Milan and Turin is home to both the furniture and furnishings industries and the world of fashion. Traditional craftsmanship is highly valued there - an ideal environment, therefore, for the Advanced Design Studio.

The same goes for the Far East. Both Japan and China are of huge importance to Mercedes-Benz. In its Design Studios in Tokyo and Beijing new trends are divined, developed and incorporated into the designing process. Tokyo, the megacity, is an important trendsetter when it comes to the concept of downsizing for the premium segment, for example. The designers address some very fundamental questions here, such as what will "being mobile" mean as a concept in the future.

Mercedes-Benz Design creates designs for vehicles from the architecture phase through to the series production process. The creative development and design of possible new model series and their variants for the Mercedes-Benz portfolio also form part of its responsibilities. Working closely with Research & Development, the facility also works on concepts for future mobility and innovative show cars – from initial sketches through to roadworthy prototypes. "We are all artistic here, but also have to be a part-engineer too," explains Gorden Wagener, talking about the challenges for a car designer.

Apart from pure vehicle design, the designers, working under the label
Mercedes-Benz Style, also work on product design commissions from manufacturers of premium products in areas such as transport, industrial design, lifestyle products and furniture. "Design can bring together many different disciplines and industry sectors. Designing is a creative process whose life blood is new stimuli. The work we do under the label Mercedes-Benz Style also provides inspiration for our car design activities - and, of course, vice versa."