Gorden Wagener (born September 3, 1968, in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

) is a German car designer, and is the chief design officer for

Mercedes-Benz Group AG The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

Career

Wagener studied Industrial Design at the

University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen (german: link=no, Universität Duisburg-Essen) is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded ...

(1990–1993), after which he specialized his studies in Transportation Design at The

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in London. After college, he worked as an exterior designer for Volkswagen, Mazda and General Motors. In 1997 he joined

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

as a transportation designer and became the manager for the exterior and interior styling of the R-,ML- and GL-Class models in 1999 and moving onto the A-, B-, C-, E-, CLK- and CLS-Class in 2002. He moved to the Advanced Design studio in the US in 2006 and became Director of Design Strategy and Global Advanced Design in 2007. The following year he was promoted to Vice President Design of Daimler AG where he developed the company style called "sensual purity" in 2009. Wagener was appointed Daimler's Chief Design Officer in 2016, becoming a board member of the company. He was awarded the honorary title of Professor Honoris Causa from the

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design The Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (in Hungarian: Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem, MOME), former Hungarian University of Arts and Design, is located in Budapest, Hungary. Named after László Moholy-Nagy, the university offers programs ...

in Budapest in 2009 and in 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

Technical University of Sofia The Technical University of Sofia ( bg, Технически университет - София) is Bulgaria's largest and foremost academic establishment for higher engineering education. The university is a state-owned entity with academic self- ...

He was awarded The American Prize for Design in 2017 in conjunction with

Good Design The Good Design movement was an artistic movement or design concept that originated in the 1930s, but took form principally in the United States immediately after the Second World War. Designs made under the influence of Good Design include buil ...

by the

Chicago Athenaeum The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architecture, ...

and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Notable designs

Mercedes-Benz A-Class The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a subcompact car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz as the brand's entry-level vehicle. The first generation (internally coded W168) was introduced in 1997, the second generation (W169) in ...

Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W221) The Mercedes-Benz W221 is a chassis code of S-Class, the successor of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W220) and the predecessor of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W222). The S-Class are the flagship vehicles of Mercedes-Benz and each generation typicall ...

Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class The Mercedes-Benz GLE, formerly Mercedes-Benz M-Class (designated with the "ML" nomenclature), is a mid-size luxury SUV produced by the German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz since 1997. In terms of size, it is slotted in between the smaller GLC ...

Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class The Mercedes-Benz GLC is a Compact crossover SUV#Luxury vehicles, Compact luxury crossover SUV introduced in 2015 for the 2016 model year that replaces the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class, GLK-Class. According to Mercedes-Benz, it is the SUV equivalent t ...

Mercedes-EQ Mercedes-EQ is a series of battery electric vehicles manufactured by Mercedes-Benz. The first model was previewed at the Paris Motor Show in 2016 with the Generation EQ concept vehicle. Mercedes-Benz intends to produce ten EQ models by 2022, thre ...

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (C199 / R199 / Z199) is a grand tourer jointly developed by German automotive manufacturer Mercedes-Benz and British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive and sold from 2003 to 2009. When the car was develop ...

* Mercedes-AMG ONE * Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 *

Mercedes-Benz F015 concept Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wagener, Gorden 1968 births Living people German automobile designers Alumni of the Royal College of Art Mercedes-Benz designers