Press Release
Page 1 – Overview
Page 2 – Design philosophy
Page 3 – Design process
The design process: Working in two worlds
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From the sketchbook to the Powerwall
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Close teamwork between designers and engineers
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Design studios in Europe, Asia and USA
More than 350 employees from 20 nations are responsible for lending shape to Mercedes passenger cars. The headquarters of the Design department are in Sindelfingen, where a modern design building featuring a segmented layout reminiscent of a studio structure was constructed on the site of the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center in 1998. Mercedes-Benz has also established design studios in Como (Italy), Tokyo (Japan) and Los Angeles (USA). Three continents and three cultures ??????????????????????????????????????? many years ahead, this ensures the stylistic variety necessary to recognise where automotive design trends are going and how customer expectations will develop.
Design work is teamwork. Mercedes designers work in teams with their colleagues in the Development and Production departments, planning the processes necessary to make new stylistic ideas technically realisable. The design process is a fixed part 0of the Mercedes Development System (MDS), which divides the concept, design and production of new models into individual phases. The interfaces between these phases are the ???????????????????????????????????quality gates???????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? fixed times during the project when development progress and the level of maturity are examined. The quality gate only opens if a predefined level of performance has been achieved, allowing the next project phase to begin.
The design process begins with the ???????????????????????????????????emotional phase????????????????????????????????. This is an important phase during which the design potentials of a new vehicle project are explored to direct the different design ideas into the right channels. It is also necessary, for designing top-class automobiles undoubtedly requires not just a technical understanding, but also emotional input: a passion for cars, a fascination with technology and enthusiasm for experience-oriented driving.
Conceptual phase: emotions on paper and the computer screen
While sketchpads and colour pencils remain a popular working aid during the emotional phase of the design process, in order to put visions on paper and sketch new shapes, the designers increasingly often resort to an electronic pen and a computer drawing board. Computers have revolutionised the scope of automotive design. Modern technology multiplies the creative possibilities of designers, allowing them to create many variants of a new car, change them around with little effort and rapidly compare the results with the requirements laid down in the conceptual book of specifications. Without ever building a model, bending a piece of steel or moulding a dashboard panel.
The first two-dimensional computer drafts demonstrate whether the stylistic ideas were reconcilable with the requirements of the predetermined dimensional concept. This basic data was already stored in the computer??????????????????????????????????????s electronic memory as a ???????????????????????????????????proportional model???????????????????????????????? and at every stage of the process they provided the designers with a reliable reference to reconcile their designs with reality. Are the windscreen and A-pillars inclined at the right angles? Is the bonnet high enough to accommodate all the engine variants? The computer can answer these and other questions at the click of a mouse button.
Detailed improvements: into the virtual world
With a high degree of precision and much more rapidly than before, this produced variants which to a large extent complied with the requirements of the design and dimensional concepts. In order to fine-tune the design and technology, the specialists in Sindelfingen then took to the so-called Powerwall ??????????????????????????????????????? a seven-metre-wide projection wall onto which high-performance computers project the designs in such a way that the designers can view and assess them from every conceivable angle. In this way it was also possible to combine the dimensional concept with the design variants by purely digital means, thereby creating the conditions for a technically and stylistically perfect overall result at an early stage.
Model phase: the third dimension
Taking decisions in the virtual world alone is not enough, however. In contrast to any digital representation, it is only reality that really produces a truly emotional design experience. Accordingly the model-makers went into action when the number of exterior designs had been reduced to a shortlist, transferring the computer images to the real, three-dimensional world in the form of 1:4-scale models. Now it is possible to revise wing contours, headlamp transitions and other details as a final fine-tuning process.
Using these models, the Board of Management and head of Design select the designs to be produced as life-size 1:1-scale models ??????????????????????????????????????? of which the best will ultimately enter series production.
