Gorden Wagener
Gorden Wagener (born 3 September 1968) is a German car designer, and is the chief design officer for Mercedes-Benz Group AG. He was born in Essen.
Gorden Wagener

MercedesFan1990 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Gorden Wagener
- Born
- 3 September 1968
- Birthplace
- Essen, West Germany
- Occupation
- Car designer
- Nationality
- Germany
- Education
- Royal College of Art
- Languages
- German
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Gorden Wagener (born 3 September 1968) is a German car designer, and is the chief design officer for Mercedes-Benz Group AG. He was born in Essen.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Gorden Wagener. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q21033636 · wikipedia · Gorden Wagener
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Gorden Wagener • Born — 3 September 1968 • Birthplace — Essen, West Germany • Occupation — Car designer • Notable Works — Mercedes-Benz S-Class Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
Career
Career
Wagener studied Industrial Design at the University of Duisburg-Essen (1990–1993), after which he specialized his studies in Transportation Design at The Royal College of Art in London. After college, he worked as an exterior designer for Volkswagen, Mazda and General Motors. In 1997 he joined Mercedes-Benz as a transportation designer and became the manager for the exterior and interior styling of the R-Class, ML-Class and GL-Class models in 1999 and moving onto the A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, E-Class, CLK-Class 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. Wagener was awarded the honorary title of Professor Honoris Causa from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest in 2009 and in 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Sofia. • Illustration — Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupé Wagener was awarded The American Prize for Design in 2017 in conjunction with Good Design by the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Notable designs
Notable designs
• Mercedes-Benz A-Class • Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W221) • Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class • Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class • Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class • Mercedes-EQ • Mercedes-Benz VLE • Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren • Mercedes-AMG ONE • Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 • Mercedes-Benz F015 concept
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Gorden Wagener”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q21033636: Gorden Wagener
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Gorden Wagener: "Good design must always be a mirror of the brand and must be inspiring.". Red Dot.
- 2.Gorden Wagener: Chief Design Officer Daimler AG. Mercedes-Benz.
- 3.Mercedes Sheds Its 'Old' Design. Wall Street Journal. 17 October 2013.
- 4.Behind The Scenes With The Head Designer At Mercedes-Benz. Forbes Brand Voice. 24 August 2015.
- 5.Mercedes-Benz's Chief Design Officer Explains the Future of Autonomous Vehicles. Architectural Digest. 16 December 2016.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Modern design
3,254 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Godefroid DevreeseDesigner
- Godtfred Kirk ChristiansenDesigner
- Gonzalo TassierDesigner
- Göran HongellDesigner
- Gordon BuehrigDesigner
- Gordon CoppuckDesigner
- Gordon CrookDesigner
- Gordon CyrusDesigner
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Gorden Wagener?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.