German Car Zone

Originally Posted by Mr. Mercedes

What worries me a little is that Wagener seems to be behind most of the 'Americanized' MB's. While it was inevitable this had to be done to appease the almighty American market (BMW did it, MB did it and Audi is on its way), I hope he doesn't take it too far. Respect for Mercedes traditional design values must be preserved!

Originally Posted by Mr. Mercedes

What fantastic pieces of work have Steve Mattin, Murat Günak, Michael Fink and all the others done since? I'd really like to know.

Originally Posted by hu§eindesign

This was what i meant.. he/his team is/are responsible for a large part of Mb's current lineup. So I'm not really sure of a new direction coming. this was probably one of the reasons why wagener ws appointed nwe chief designer.


Steve Mattin hasn't been that long at Volvo. The XC60 Concept was -as far as I know- his first "public" lead project at Volvo. Not sure whether he he was early enough to lead the realisation of the production model, time seems too short for that.

Michael Fink left MB to be the head of Hyundai/Kia's European design center. He was there for a very short time. I had contact with him and last thing I knew from him that he was working at the Austrian design company Design A Storz, but that was like 2 years ago, not sure whether he's still there.

Murat Günak was responsible for VW's new face - the chromy mask, which, to be honest, wasn't really a remarkable work. But before that he was at Peugeot and there he designed the Peugeot 206, which was so influental to Peugeot's design, that they're still duplicating it in all sizes 10 years after. The car was extremely successfull and topped the list of the most sold cars in Europe for a while and is without any doubt an icon of modern car design.

Some of their post-MB work wasn't as remarkable as their work at MB, and that's because their tasks became much harder when they left.
See, the hardest task a car design could get is to create a new face for a company without a face or heritage. Hyundai/Kia had no heritage so it's really hard to create a new face for them, Mercedes or BMW are traditional makers with lots of heritage and a huge archive of wonderful design that could be quoted any time designers get stuck. I don't think Bangle's Work would have been recognized/respected that much if he worked for a maker with much less tradition than BMW.
In VW's case the problem was creating a face for their products. The company doesn't lack tradition or heritage but they lack a reconizable face like Mercedes's grills or BMW' kidneys. So the task of Mr. Günak was't that easy as many thought and that's why his work might appear less remarkable that his work at MB.
Peter Schryer is facing the same problem righ now as the chief designer of Kia. It's much harder o start with a blank sheet of paper than build upon something already brilliant.