Wagener’s departure marks end of an era at German car maker; will be replaced by AMG design chief
Mercedes-Benz design boss Gorden Wagener will step down in January, ending a 28-year career that radically reshaped both the styling of its production models and the internal design culture at the German car maker.
The 56-year-old designer, who joined Mercedes-Benz in 1997 and has led its global design operations since 2008, will be replaced by Bastian Baudy, the head of Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance car design department.
Wagener will leave the German firm on 31 January. It is at his own request and by mutual agreement.
His departure closes a significant chapter in Mercedes-Benz’s design history. Under his direction, the design of its production cars underwent a comprehensive overhaul, moving from the conservative, engineer-led styling of the early 2000s to the more emotional and sculptural forms that define the existing Mercedes-Benz line-up.
“Gorden Wagener has shaped the identity of our brands with his visionary design philosophy. Over many years, he has made a decisive contribution ensuring that our innovative products are synonymous with unique aesthetics worldwide. His creativity and his sense for the future of automotive design have sustainably enriched Mercedes-Benz,” said Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius.
When Wagener was appointed vice president of design in 2008 at just 39 years of age, the youngest lead designer within the global automotive industry at the time, he inherited an operation struggling to reconcile its heritage with contemporary design trends. His predecessor, Peter Pfeiffer had championed a more traditional design approach heavily rooted in engineering principles.
Wagener’s response was to develop what he termed “sensual purity”, a design philosophy he introduced in 2009 that aimed to create models that would appeal to “both your head and heart”. The approach prioritised clean surfaces, sculptural forms and reduced visual complexity in a marked departure from the angular, heavily detailed designs that had characterised Mercedes-Benz’s core models in previous decades.
“We don’t want to be conservative anymore,” Wagener explained in 2019. “Mercedes has to be emotional. You have to fall in love with the car before you even sit in it.”
The zenith of this design lineage is arguably the Mercedes-AMG GT sports car, which Wagener has frequently cited as his most cherished design. “Sport cars were always my favourite design projects,” he said. “The GT is pure emotion and fascination. That is what makes the GT so special for me.”
Wagener is also credited with a long line of flamboyant Mercedes-Benz concept cars, the final of which, the art deco inspired Vision Iconic, was revealed in Shanghai in October, previewing the bold new design language set to be adopted by future key production models, including the upcoming electric C-class and E-class saloons due out in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
Born in the German city of Essen in 1968, Wagener studied industrial design at the University of Duisburg-Essen before specialising in transportation design at London’s Royal College of Art. His career began with stints at Volkswagen, Mazda and General Motors before he joined Mercedes-Benz in 1997 as a transportation designer working under Mercedes-Benz’s then design boss, Bruno Sacco.
His rise through the Mercedes-Benz design ranks was rapid. By 1999, he was managing exterior and interior styling for the R-class, ML-class and GL-class models. In 2002, he moved to passenger car development, overseeing design for the A-, B-, C-, E-, CLK-, CLS-class and the SLR developed in partnership with McLaren. A brief transfer to Mercedes-Benz’s Advanced Design studio in California in 2006 preceded his 2007 promotion to Director of Design Strategy and Global Advanced Design.
When he assumed overall leadership, Wagener broke decisively with long time Mercedes-Benz tradition and processes. His predecessors, Karl Wilfert, Friedrich Geiger, Bruno Sacco and Peter Pfeiffer, had all trained as engineers. Wagener was the first pure designer to lead Mercedes-Benz design, a distinction those who worked under him say enabled the “sensual purity” shift he would champion.
If one car exemplified Wagener’s impact, it was the CLS – a model that brought the four-door coupe that gave Mercedes a sleeker, more desirable model to sell alongside its more conservative saloons. From there, the brief widened with similarly styled models such as the A- and CLA-class to chase younger buyers. Other key models designed under his leadership include the SLS (with its gullwing doors) and the current G-class.
Elevated to the Mercedes-Benz board in 2016 as chief design officer, Wagener oversaw design for all Mercedes-Benz Group brands, including Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-Benz Vans, the EQ electric sub-brand and Smart. His remit extended beyond cars: he has led design teams on helicopters, luxury yachts, and most recently, the Mercedes-Benz Places residential towers in Dubai and Miami.
Wagener’s tenure has not been without controversy. His design for Mercedes-Benz’s EQ electric models, particularly the EQS saloon, drew heavy criticism for its aerodynamically optimised but visually controversial “jelly bean” form. Sales of Mercedes-Benz’s flagship electric model have failed to live up to early expectations, with recent moves made with the GLC Electric seeing a return to electric models more closely resembling their combustion counterparts, acknowledgment that Wagener’s more radical electric car design was perhaps “ahead of its time”, as he himself suggested.
The prolific use of large digital screens in the interiors of recent Mercedes-Benz models also sits awkwardly with Wagener’s stated design priorities. Despite the brand’s 56-inch Hyperscreen being among the industry’s largest displays, Wagener told Autocar “screens are not luxury” and emphasised Mercedes-Benz would focus more on craftsmanship and sophistication in future models with what he describes as a “hyper-analogue” approach.
Wagener’s successor, 41-year-old Bastian Baudy, currently serves as head of design at Mercedes-AMG. The appointment once again places a younger designer at the helm of Mercedes-Benz design.
Baudy, who graduated from Pforzheim University’s transportation design programme in 2010, began his career at Mercedes-Benz in advanced design before progressing to team leadership roles in exterior design. His breakthrough came in 2013 when his sketch won an internal design competition to create the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo concept for the PlayStation game Gran Turismo 6, drawing inspiration from the bulbous, muscular forms of 1940s Mercedes-Benz race cars. More recently, Baudy is also credited with providing the design impetus for the current EQE and E-class.
