Mercedes-Benz Designer Enters Automotive Hall of Fame

Mercedes-Benz Designer Bruno Sacco

Bruno Sacco: Shaping the face of the brand

By Text & Photos edited by F. de Leeuw van Weenen
October 6, 2006 5:31 AM
Filed Under: German, Mercedes-Benz

Press Release

Bruno Sacco: Shaping the face of the brand

“One can only recognize innovative technology when it is combined with equally innovative design.” So says Bruno Sacco, the man whose lasting impact on the design of Mercedes-Benz automobiles has been greater than any other’s – and the designer who put the face on Mercedes-Benz. On October 3, 2006, Dr. Bruno Sacco, whose work for the brand with the three-pointed star spanned more than four decades, will be admitted to the renowned Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn near Detroit, USA, as a tribute to his life work. The now retired former Mercedes-Benz Head of Design will thereby be made an honorary member of the small and select group of outstanding and deserving personalities from all over the world whose life work has demonstrated a commitment to individual mobility.

Vita Bruno Sacco

Bruno Sacco was born in Udine, Italy, on November 12, 1933. After training in Tarvisio and Udine, he enrolled at the polytechnic high school in Turin, where a study period at Ghia provided him with early experience in the field of body design. He later took on a number of smaller orders for both Ghia and Pininfarina. Bruno Sacco’s career at Daimler-Benz began in 1958. As stylist and designer he was involved in various projects under the supervision of Karl Wilfert, Friedrich Geiger and Béla Barényi, including the Mercedes-Benz 600 and the 230 SL roadster. In addition, he was made project leader for the design of the safety exhibitions of the day as well as the so-called “test labs on wheels”, the C 111-I and C 111-II experimental vehicles. In 1970 Sacco became Head of the Body Design and Dimensional Drawing department at Daimler-Benz. Under his aegis this period saw the development of the ESF (Experimental Safety Vehicle) prototypes and the 123 series.

In 1975 and now bearing the title Senior Engineer, Bruno Sacco took over as successor to Friedrich Geiger as Head of the Styling Department and from then on played a vital part in shaping the overall appearance of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. The key stages of this gradual formal evolution were the record-breaking C 111-III diesel (1978) and the W 126-series S-Class (1979). In 1978 Sacco was appointed Head of the Styling Department. In 1987 the Board of Management appointed him Director of the Design Department, and in 1993 in his function as Head of Design he became a member of the company’s Board of Directors. In this capacity Bruno Sacco also assumed a mandated role for the design of products for the Commercial Vehicle Division. In March 1999, after 41 years service with Mercedes-Benz design, Bruno Sacco handed over leadership of the department to Peter Pfeiffer.

During the years he worked at Daimler-Benz Bruno Sacco received numerous personal awards:

Automotive Hall of Fame - A celebration of automotive progress

On October 18, 1939, a group of high-ranking decision-makers representing the automotive industry met in New York to set up an institution to honor automotive achievements. The organization was given the name Automobile Old Timers and was established in part as a memorial to the pioneers of the age of the automobile, but also to honor contemporary personalities connected with the automotive industry. This circle of worthies was later expanded to include all outstanding thinkers who have played a part in the global development of the car. Since then the institution has celebrated all those who have made decisive contributions to the automotive industry.

In 1960 the Automobile Old Timers organization moved to Washington, D.C., then in 1971 to Midland, Michigan, about 55 miles (90 km) north of Detroit, where in 1975 it became a permanent institution open to the public. Soon afterwards the organizers realized that their organization should be close to Detroit, the focal point of the American car industry. So on August 15, 1997, the Automotive Hall of Fame was opened at its present location in Dearborn, Michigan.

The number of personalities currently honored in the Automotive Hall of Fame runs to almost 200. They include Béla Barényi, Karl Benz, Robert Bosch, Ettore Bugatti, Louis Chevrolet, Walter P. Chrysler, André Citroën, Gottlieb Daimler, the brothers John Francis and Horace Elgin Dodge, William Durant, Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford, Soichiro Honda, Wilhelm Maybach, Armand Peugeot, Ferdinand Porsche and Kiichiro Toyota.

The Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn is the world’s largest institution dedicated to celebrating creative achievements in the world of international automotive design. Each year the facility attracts over 30,000 visitors who come to admire its avantgarde architecture and to learn about the personalities featured here, their life work and technological advances in the automotive industry. The Automotive Hall of Fame recognizes achievements in four categories: People who have rendered outstanding general service in the field of human mobility, people who have made a particular contribution on specific themes, industry managers of the year and the industry’s rising stars of the future.

Mercedes-Benz design philosophy

The history of the automobile dates back over 120 years. Customers today can choose from an enormously diverse range of cars. Virtually any class or brand of vehicle is available in almost every country in the world, and the number of different variants is almost too overwhelming for the individual to grasp. Many of the popular brands today offer a complete product range from compact car to luxury sedan, not to mention derivatives for various market niches. Helping customers get to grips with such diversity is one purpose of brand names. Notwith-standing their economic relationship to a company, every brand represents a certain set of values. The job of design is to convey the technical expertise behind that set of values. It is a task to which Mercedes-Benz design has felt particularly committed since the era of Bruno Sacco.

When designing a new car it is not sufficient simply to serve up bundles of creative solutions in order to make the product appear innovative. What is required is strategic far-sightedness. The time spans in which designers are required to think are considerable and therefore conceal a major risk – the incalculability of social, economic and political changes into which a new product will be released. Taking as an example the lifecycle of the Mercedes-Benz passenger car, Bruno Sacco demonstrated just what degree of far-sightedness was necessary when working against a backdrop of such underlying uncertainty. Sacco worked on that basis of a three- to five-year development phase, an average production period of eight years and a service life of about 20 years. So the design of a Mercedes-Benz not only has to remain up-to-date for 30 years, it also has to remain timeless. Considering that the form of a vehicle will be decided in the second year of this cycle, the importance of design to the success of a new Mercedes-Benz is therefore enormous.

In order to safeguard success in the long term, Bruno Sacco developed a Mercedes-Benz design philosophy during the 1970s. A design family was to be created to which all passenger cars bearing the three-pointed star belonged. The first law of this philosophy was that a Mercedes-Benz should be intuitively recognizable as part of this family by members of the public representing different cultures from all over the world. And should a Mercedes-Benz undergo advanced development in a subsequent model generation, then the identity of the model series was to be safeguarded. Bruno Sacco referred to this as “vertical affinity”. It was the central pillar of the Mercedes-Benz design philosophy and ensured that a predecessor model did not appear outmoded following the presentation of a new model generation. The goal of this strategy was to retain the positive aura of a Mercedes-Benz on the roads for as long as possible.

The second main pillar of the Mercedes-Benz design philosophy was brand identity. This called for traditional design characteristics to be maintained, further developed and featured in all model series simultaneously. In this context the term Sacco used was “horizontal homogeneity”. It found outward expression, for example, in the design of the radiator grille, headlamps and tail lights. Although there were formal differences in detail between sedans, coupes and roadsters, the family likeness was obvious to the casual observer at first glance.

Mercedes-Benz design today

Brand creation is a core factor within the Mercedes-Benz design philosophy. Every child today can recognize a Mercedes-Benz. But deter-mining how the car’s design shapes the brand calls for expert strategic far-sightedness. Mercedes-Benz sees the design invested in its products as a way of introducing concepts. Design is not an equipment feature, but an integral part of the car’s personality. It expresses the character of the vehicle by creating an identity out of the interplay between technology and form, tradition and future. And since design must be long-lasting, it avoids short-lived fads. In this way, design lends sustainable strength to the brand-specific knowledge about Mercedes-Benz – and the unique tradition of the brand that stretches back over one hundred years. Thanks to continuity over many decades, Mercedes-Benz design has been able to sharpen its focus on the innovation values of cars bearing the three-pointed star, as well as on their future orientation. In addition to technical and design functions, the customer also recognizes the symbolic power of a Mercedes-Benz. In this way what forms in the public consciousness is a subjective image of the brand that provides the basis of a distinctive brand identity.

“Ugliness doesn’t sell well,” is a comment attributed to Raymond Loewy from the 1950s. The French-born North American industrial designer was well aware of the interaction between product, customer and brand identity. He was convinced that people revealed a lot about their personality through their choice of car. After all, few products are as public as a car.

More than ever, people nowadays see car travel as an experience. They live more intense and self-aware lives than ever before. They take enjoyment in life’s pleasures – and in beautiful cars in particular. The fact they enjoy exhibiting their Mercedes-Benz in public as an expression of their personal lifestyle speaks eloquently for the brand’s high prestige value. And design is the chief factor responsible for the passion that awakens desirability.

Design watershed in the present

Beginning in the 1980s Mercedes-Benz design adhered to a strict logic initiated by Bruno Sacco. Today it has reached a degree of maturity unique among brand competitors. No other automotive brand walks the tightrope between innovation and brand tradition with such sure-footedness, expertise and ambition. Proof of this can be found in a growing clientele that understands and respects Mercedes-Benz design.

The Mercedes-Benz brand has undergone historic changes over the course of its development: for over a decade it has no longer just stood for vehicles from the upper segment. The product drive launched in the first half of the 1990s led to successful new concepts that tapped entirely new target groups. The number of new models called for fresh forms of expression that shared a common goal, namely that every model series and every product should possess all values that customers associate with a Mercedes-Benz. The most basic rule of Bruno Sacco’s Mercedes-Benz design philosophy therefore acquired a particular relevance: “A Mercedes-Benz will always look like a Mercedes-Benz.”

The watershed was reached in March 1993. The focus of the Mercedes-Benz stand at the Geneva Motor Show was not a new production model packed with technical innovations, but for the first time a design study. The public admired the coupe study with its four oval headlamps, muscular sculpted wheel arches and highly dynamic radiator grille harmoniously integrated into the engine hood. And when the E-Class with the “four-eyed face” from the W 210 series went into production two years later one thing was clear: It was not just the new sedan that was to be seen in a new light, but the entire Mercedes-Benz brand. The slogan went: “See Mercedes with new eyes!” From now on the focus was no longer just on the value of a Mercedes-Benz product, but on its importance to the Mercedes-Benz brand. In the development of the E-Class with its elliptical headlamps, Bruno Sacco recognized a unique opportunity to link together technical and formal innovation. This new design factor was successfully replicated, for example, in successive model series, including the 208 (CLK-Class), 220 (S-Class) and 215 (CL-Class). From this point on Mercedes-Benz approached the competition war in the automotive market as a competition between brands.

What preceded brand competition in the 1990s was a two-decade-long battle between manufacturers to create the best car image. This in turn derived from the competitive struggle to achieve best product quality. Nowadays the spotlight focuses more on emotionally charged differentiation criteria such as brand image or design criteria. The external appearance of a product is a crucial factor in people’s decision to buy.

More than ever before, today’s brilliant design ideas arise out of changed technological requirements. Knowledge gained from the wind tunnel, for example, calls for concrete formal solutions. On the other hand, innovative forms call for innovative technical solutions, such as the use of new materials. One goal pursued by Mercedes-Benz, for example, is to use painted metal rather than paneling in order to make a not insignificant contribution to a car’s environmental compatibility. As a result today’s design decision processes are always taken in collaboration with other development departments. Aesthetic authority, however, is non-negotiable.

Design and product drives I and II

Under the programmatic term product drive, Mercedes-Benz evolved during the 1990s from a brand essentially supported by three passenger car series to a manufacturer with a comprehensive product portfolio. In addition to the C-, E- and S-Class, new market segments as being tapped by the A-, ML-, SLK- and CLK-Class models. The company grew and the value world of the Mercedes-Benz brand became ever more complex. Efforts on the part of the Mercedes-Benz design team to keep the brand intact by means of horizontal homogeneity and to keep the diversity of the product range manageable were initially perceived by sections of the public as not entirely logical. Irritations also found there way into reports in the media. Fears were expressed that Mercedes-Benz’s brand values could become overstretched.

The launch of product drive II in 2005 succeeded in resolving the complexity issue by creating a simple and distinctive overall appearance for the brand. It gained a historically significant dimension. The market launches of the B- and R-Class, and of the CLS- and the GL-Class, silenced the critics. Mercedes-Benz designers succeeded in creating a clear visualization of the brand-typical desire for perfection across all model series – most impressively, perhaps, in the sculptured form of the Mercedes-Benz CLS. This unique four-seater successfully combined two distinct personalities within a single elegant automobile: the functionality of a sedan with the charisma of a coupe.

Retrospective: Engineering know-how becomes design

The invention of pneumatic tires, easily deformed steel, complex suspension systems and bigger engines sparked completely new automobile designs in the early part of the twentieth century. The later much-used slogan: “form follows function” was a particularly apt description of the way technology began to exert an influence over design during the motor car’s infant years. Mercedes was a trendsetter even back then. For Bruno Sacco, the cornerstone of Mercedes-Benz design history is the Mercedes 35 hp, the first car to bear the name Mercedes – a masterpiece of technical beauty. “The concept was not only rigorously thought through in technical terms and stylistically unique,” explains Bruno Sacco, “it was also extremely successful. It provided the foundations for a new era of automotive design.” The car designed by Wilhelm Maybach and built as a racing and sports car, which is also regarded as the very first modern automobile, generates fascination through innovation. The pioneering design of the first Mercedes-Benz vehicle features a lightweight, powerful front-mounted engine, a pressed-steel frame, a low center of gravity, a wide track gauge and long wheelbase, a raked steering column and the high-performance honeycomb radiator grille with its distinctive design. This innovative concept served numerous other manufacturers as the basis for new designs of their own.

The greatest challenge facing the development engineers at the world’s oldest automotive manufacturer in the years before the Second World War was to marry technical innovation with aesthetic guidelines. An early example of their creativity was the Lightning Benz of 1909. Its design copied aerodynamic principles and aesthetic calculation. The dominance of the Mercedes-Benz S, SS and SSK models on international race circuits between 1927 and 1932 broadcast Mercedes-Benz product and brand values all over the world. In as far as the victorious racers with their eye-catching design were reminiscent of the successful Mercedes “Grand Prix racing cars” of 1914, these cars became the company’s first ambassadors for continuous brand development. The Mercedes-Benz 500 K and 540 K models of 1935 and 1936 then conveyed this message further still. Full of character, ostentatious in design and with flowing lines, they still pass to day for objects of unsurpassed beauty.

In the years after the Second War the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL gripped the automotive world. Designed as a competition vehicle by the ingenious racing engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the two-seater was transformed by body designer Friedrich Geiger into an automotive masterpiece. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL featured a space frame, which for structural reasons came up relatively high at the sides. This meant the door hinges had to be moved to the top, and the result was the birth of the gullwing door. It was also the first time a Mercedes-Benz road vehicle did not sport a vertical radiator grille, adopting instead an almost bestial air vent with a three-pointed star at its center. The new front end came to define the design of all subsequent SL sports cars. Between 1954 and 1957 a total of 1,400 300 SL coupes were built. Production of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster then started up almost immediately. Bruno Sacco was able to experience this at first hand. Having started at Mercedes-Benz in Untertürkheim in 1958, the young designer later described his first impressions: “I was utterly fascinated by the way the body had been put together with such care and artistry.”

Creation of the Stylistics department

It was not by chance that the then 24-year-old Bruno Sacco found his way to Stuttgart in 1958. The “Stylistics” department had been created only a few years beforehand. The initially quite small department was first headed by Friedrich Geiger. The department’s responsibilities were clearly defined: to oversee design processes of new Mercedes-Benz cars and formulate guidelines for their design. But since formal continuity is not something that can grow overnight, the designers continued at first to rely on their sense of style. Such form-defining experiments, however, did not find their way into production vehicles, only racing sports cars.

During the first year of his learning phase, Bruno Sacco saw how designers at Mercedes-Benz succumbed to the magical pull of a fashion trend. The Mercedes-Benz W 111 series sedans, introduced in 1959, sported tailfins, as had Ghia’s pioneering “Gilda” study at the Turin Motor Show of 1955. Virtually every North American brand adopted this design element for its future new models, before later abandoning it with equal alacrity. Later, in 1961, the learning process at Mercedes-Benz resulted in a coupe version of this series, which was not only one of the most beautiful Mercedes-Benz cars ever built, but for many experts one of the most attractive cars produced by any manufacturer. In particular, the design of the C pillars, rear screen and rear end would justify this view.

The tailfin models from the upper category were superseded in 1965 by the Mercedes-Benz 250 S, 250 SE, 300 SEb and long-wheelbase 300 SE models from the W 108 and W 109 series. These were very similar in terms of their technological design. These new models’ design did without any fads of fashion, stating its point through simple elegance. These highly successful models were built until 1972, after which time they were superseded by the W 116 S-Class.

Under the guidance of the ingenious Béla Barényi, the design of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars began to integrate safety features that secured for the brand a lasting competitive advantage. Together they produced numerous safety bodies for study purposes. The so-called safety occupant cell with front and rear crumple zones was incorpo-rated into series production of the “tailfin models” from the 111 series.

The Mercedes-Benz 230 SL of 1963, styled by Sacco, also followed Barényi’s recommendations, achieving immortality as the so-called Pagoda. The hardtop design that gave the car its familiar name made access to the sporty two-seater more comfortable and also provided structural rigidity for protection in the event of a rollover. Although it appears the design of his concave-convex roof was purely functional, it actually came about through aerodynamic research.

The milestones in Mercedes-Benz design between 1960 and 1970 were the C 111-I and C 111-II. These experimental vehicles never reached the production stage, but they remain impressive examples of the creative power of Mercedes-Benz design. They owed their existence to the complete freedom the designers were given to ignore all conventional forms. Some of the lines and design details eventually found their way much later into series models.

Mercedes-Benz’s experimental safety vehicles from the 1970s expressed what was on the mind of the automotive world during that period – for what people were calling for in the USA, Mercedes-Benz’s biggest market, was maximum passenger safety. A vehicle from this series, the ESF 22 from 1974, now has a place in the Mercedes-Benz Museum as an important historical document; this car was based on the S-Class of 1972.

Mercedes-Benz design in the hands of Bruno Sacco

In 1974 Bruno Sacco took over as Head of the Design Development department at Mercedes-Benz, where in addition to developing current projects he also put together long-term plans for the decades ahead. In 1978 his department caught the world unawares with a third C 111 project, a diesel record-breaking car that was aerodynamically inspired and featured sharp body lines. In no previous brand design project had technical innovation and design creativity been so powerfully combined. Numerous design elements later found their way into new pro-duction models of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its precise edges and clean lines that ran parallel to the so-called flow line also heavily influenced the design of the future Mercedes-Benz 190.

The “small Mercedes” opened a new and successful chapter for the Mercedes-Benz brand in late 1982. Until then the brand had been responsible solely for cars in the upper segments; now it served up the so-called compact class as a completely new vehicle category positioned beneath the established Mercedes-Benz sedans. The new four-door was designed to appeal to customers able to afford a car bearing the three-pointed star for the first time. Its attractions were not status-oriented style elements from the luxury segment, but functional features. Discussion focused on its moderate wedge shape with clean edges, distinctive C pillars and high, rounded trunk lid – features that later found many imitators. Attention was even drawn to the small crease in the roof area, which fulfilled an aerodynamic function.

A second masterpiece to receive critical acclaim in the new era was the Mercedes-Benz SL of 1989 (R 129 series). Once again a new design, it embodied the dynamics of the roadster with perfect proportions and sporting details. The elongated, dipping engine hood, the A pillars as a stylistic continuation of the front wheel arches, the muscular short hardtop and the aerodynamic, gently flowing sidewalls collectively amounted to a controlled bundle of energy with looks that would keep youthful for years.

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class shaped the brand values of innovation, safety, comfort and status orientation like no other model series before it. The S-Class from the W 140 series of 1991 waved goodbye to traditional decorative elements, its clearly grouped, unfussy surfaces not only radiating contemporaneousness but also superiority and reliability. Diagonally split rear lights underlined its innovative character, as did the new design of radiator grille. For the first time this had been integrated into the engine hood and completely encased in metal. The three-pointed star was no longer attached to the chrome trim, but sat instead on the engine hood. The S-Class had been transformed from successful business sedan to powerfully elegant trendsetter destined for the luxury market.

Perfect integration into the product range

Having proved an immediate success, the Mercedes-Benz 190 was superseded in 1993 by the entirely new C-Class (W 202). It was to be the last model series to adhere closely to the Mercedes-Benz design philosophy that had been introduced in 1980 and – in comparison to other automotive brands – strictly adhered to. With its brand-specific, moderately updated front end, it was harmoniously integrated into the guidelines for vertical affinity in the contemporary product range.

Fully aware of the growing complexity of the Mercedes-Benz value world arising from the forthcoming product drive, Bruno Sacco relaxed the strict application of his design philosophy. Differentiation of the radiator grilles was an attempt to achieve a simpler structure. At the same time, new product-specific headlamp and wheel-arch packages were bundled together by the designers with a view to reinforcing the independence of the model series. The watershed was made public with the appearance of the E-Class from the W 210 series in 1995, when the so-called four-eyed face of the coupe study unveiled at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show entered large-scale production.

The study unveiled at Geneva in 1997 resulted in the Mercedes-Benz CLK coupe (C 208) and surprised few skeptics at the time, who feared a diminution in the exclusivity of the Mercedes-Benz brand. What convinced them of the car’s existential right was its strong individuality, its harmonious integration of pure driving pleasure and its elegant appearance, but also the easeful way the four-seater had been integrated into the Mercedes-Benz product family. Introduced the following year, the CLK convertible served to underline this goal further. Now the Mercedes-Benz CLK had established a separate series.

Design trends arise as a result of imagination and the courage to take risks. With the M-Class (W 163) launched in early 1997, Mercedes-Benz dared to combine the elegance of a station wagon with the austere sportiness of an offroad vehicle. They succeeded in disguising high ground clearance, wheels in flared wheel arches and a raised seating position for passengers using a design language that drew to a significant degree on Mercedes-Benz sedans. The new Mercedes-Benz ML became a prestigious Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).

Bruno Sacco went on record as having demanded from the designers of the Mercedes-Benz SLK (R 170 series) – the car that in 1996 caused a sensation on the sports car market – just as much vertical affinity and horizontal homogeneity as necessary. The new roadster imitated the aesthetic qualities of its elder brother, the Mercedes-Benz SL, and with its power domes on the engine hood even made reference to the stylistic features of the legendary 300 SL of 1954. Its stretched form and short overhangs front and rear seemed to symbolize the car’s forward urgency. In terms of formal creativity, everyday practicality and functional reliability, the innovative folding roof set new standards in modern automotive design.

Bold innovation and brand-loyal design

Bruno Sacco’s theory that only the combination of bold innovation and brand-loyal design could lead to a trendsetting and durable product was confirmed – as with the Mercedes-Benz compact class – with the arrival of the A-Class (W 168) in 1996. The risks involved in designing this entirely innovative four-door vehicle with tailgate and positioned below the C-Class could only have been taken by a brand with the self-confidence of Mercedes-Benz. The new A-Class reflected innovative technology in avant-garde form. It was packed with detailed solutions that were pioneering – both stylistically and functionally.

The unusual ratio between vehicle length and height permitted unique flexibility in the interior. Design of the front and rear sections reinforced the car’s youthful aspect. The double underfloor was capable of accommodating a variety of different drive systems of the future. And above and beyond the many practical individual features of the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the car’s overall appearance exuded warmth and charm. In the closing years of the millennium the A-Class was a testament to the courage of those responsible for the brand to steer a wholly new course in terms of technology and design. It actively relayed the message to the public that Mercedes-Benz stood at the dawn of a new age.

The S-Class of 1998 (W 220) was to prove Bruno Sacco’s great valedictory. He made it the brand’s innovation-bearer – a silky, elegant, well-trained athlete. The traditional front section with integrated bumper turned the sedan into a sculpture. The windshield and rear screen were more slanting than had previously been the case and gave the sedan a lower, leaner appearance. The muscular image of the new S-Class added a new dimension to the internationally prized Mercedes charisma. Far from alienating through arrogance, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class exuded confidence and individuality. It achieved a new quality of distinguished automotive self-assurance.

In March 1999 Bruno Sacco took retirement. But the spirit of the first real design strategist of the Mercedes-Benz brand continued to inhabit the design department. Bruno Sacco’s successor on the tightrope between innovation and brand tradition is now Peter Pfeiffer. He carries forward the trendsetter role of Mercedes-Benz design in a period marked by an exploding diversity of innovations. Increasing individualization now calls for innovative automotive concepts in ever shorter cycles. In the last ten years alone Mercedes-Benz model diversity has almost tripled. The major new task facing Peter Pfeiffer, therefore, is not simply to create new trends that carry the Mercedes-Benz brand across short-term fashion currents. His goal is to forge ahead into new dimensions of mobility, as represented by the successful new spatial concepts in the shape of the Mercedes-Benz B- and R-Class. But the historic challenge goes further. It is about casting a single image of the Mercedes-Benz brand face capable of capturing its increasing complexity. “We are still a long way from reaching our limits,” said Peter Pfeiffer, awakening expectations that Mercedes-Benz design will continue to play its influential trendsetting role for the automotive industry as a whole.