Design chief to retire

He headed the globally active design division of Mercedes-Benz since April 1999. In this capacity, he was responsible for designing the passenger cars and commercial vehicles of the Stuttgart automotive brand. Pfeiffer will be succeeded by Gorden Wagener (39), who currently heads the Strategic Advanced Design department and as such acts as the director of the Mercedes design studios in California and Japan.

“Under Professor Peter Pfeiffer, design became a Mercedes-Benz trademark more than ever before and contributed to the brand’s success”, said Dr. Thomas Weber, member of the Daimler Board of Management, in recognition of the work of the Mercedes chief designer.
“In translating the current Mercedes design concept into forms, Peter Pfeiffer gave our automobiles their future-oriented appearance, and in this way defined the new image of the Mercedes-Benz brand.”

Professor Peter Pfeiffer is responsible for the design of the Mercedes models currently on the market, the luxury limousine Maybach and the smart fortwo city coupe. In 2005, he and his team realised a new design style that first went into series production with the S-Class. The style is based on the rules of modern purism, which allow for the interplay of large, even surfaces with sharp lines thus accentuating the clarity of the vehicle form.

“Good design is not only about creating beautiful and fascinating individual products. It is also about more exactly defining the automobiles’ nature”, says Peter Pfeiffer. “In using this new design style, we underline the typical features of today’s Mercedes models – for example, confidence, definitely a trait distinguishing our technically sophisticated vehicles”. Besides the S-Class, the CL- Coupé, the new C-Class, the new generation of the SL sports car as well as the entire SUV family all speak the same Mercedes design language.

Another demand has always defined the work of the Mercedes Head of Design: combining tradition and innovation to achieve a harmonious whole. Without concealing the origins of the vehicles manufactured by the traditional auto manufacturer, Peter Pfeiffer successfully combined familiar stylistic elements of the brand with new ideas, in this way continuously developing the design further.

This attention to detail kept the design language and the brand’s image alive, innovative and dynamic while also making it unique. “A Mercedes-Benz car will always be recognizable as a Mercedes-Benz. Its design combines continuity and creativity, tradition and modern features.

Credits: Jarvis