GRAFT Design for Mercedes-Benz International Roll-out, Architecture Contest News

GRAFT Design for Mercedes-Benz: International Roll-out

International Architectural Contest – Architecture for German car maker’s brand identity

19 Jun 2019

GRAFT Design for Mercedes-Benz: International Roll-out News

GRAFT Brand Identity Design for Mercedes-Benz International Roll-out

Photos by Hiepler Brunier

The world’s first retail outlets with Mercedes-Benz’s new brand identity can already be seen in car dealerships in Hong Kong, Beijing, Budapest and Istanbul.

For three years, GRAFT has been working on concept development and engineering creating design guidelines and planning tools that will be implemented at sales and service locations around the world. The planning catalogue ranges from specifications for the facade and roof design to the interior design of customer contact areas, including media integration and furniture design.

Together with the creative agency TRIAD from Berlin, GRAFT won a two-stage competition against renowned international competitors. The concept of a new, seamless customer experience with modular “touchpoints”, developed in close cooperation with Mercedes-Benz and TRIAD, responds to changing offline and online customer expectations.

With the goal of developing a customer-oriented retail experience, GRAFT’s striking architecture and high-quality interior design creates flowing transitions from inside to outside.

Within the customer service area of a car dealership, the vehicle presentation is interwoven with focused yet flexible consulting areas. Modular media elements are similarly incorporated into the interior fittings that shape the showroom, strengthening the combination of the real and virtual brand presence.

This makes it possible to address and respond to the changing requirements of different target groups and to successively and adaptively incorporate these into diverse spatial environments. The resulting scenography creates numerous opportunities to interact with the Mercedes-Benz brand at different levels.

In addition to developing the concept and elaborating design guidelines, since 2017, GRAFT is also the lead planner and has been responsible for supporting the roll-out of the new brand identity in the German market. This can already be experienced around German in MercedesBenz dealerships including Böblingen, Berlin, Kaufbeuren and Darmstadt.

Mercedes-Benz Brand Architecture International Roll-out

Location: Worldwide
Project: Brand architecture, retail
Client: Daimler AG
Competition: Two-stage competition, 1st place
Period: Pilots since 2016, roll-out since 2017

Project team
Founding partners: Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, Thomas Willemeit

Project team GRAFT competition Paulo de Araujo, Marvin Bratke, Filipa Leal de Cavalho, Sven Fuchs, Alexander Grasser, Denis Leo Hegic, Relana Hense, Thomas Klein, Ilias Klis, Inigo de Latorre, René Lotz, Antonio Luque Aranda, Marta Piaseczynska, Arndt Prager, Thomas Quisinsky, Berta Sola, David Schwarz, Jörg Stanzel, Aurelius Weber, Aleksandra Zajko

Project team GRAFT concept, roll-out Germany and international consultancy Dialah Al-Khalili, Besher Alyoussef, Altan Arslanoglu, Jorge Luis Arias Anglarill, Andrei-Friederich Atanasoaie, Alexandra Baack, Edward Bainbridge, Saba Barani, Tolegen Batentayev, Andreas Blödow, Justin Bouttell, Konstantin Buhr, Veit Burgbacher, Mathilde Catros, Mathilde Dewavrin, Aysegul Dinccag, Kevin Driscoll, Matthias Eckardt, Omar Elfadaly, Firat Ertegi, Agata Filipowicz, Annette Finke, Julia Fleckenstein, Anja Frenkel, Sven Fuchs, Jerzy Gabriel, Sebastian Gernhardt, Agata Glubiak, Juri Gödel, Sara Gomez Elorriaga, Zsolt Gondos, Sorin Gabriel Gosa, Sean Guy, Thomas Grabner, Alaa Haddad, Heike Heister, Relana Hense, Clemens Hochreiter, Mara Horj, Christine Huber, Jannis Jaschke, Jan Kadziela, Bas Kahlert, Harpreet Kaur, Maximilian Keil, Aleksandra Kiszkielis, Julia Kraffert, Nikolas Krause, Vincent Krause, Tobias Krauth, Achim Krayl, Sascha Krückeberg, Tobias Kuhlmann, Niklas Labuhn, Filipa Leal de Cavalho, Fabian Leiwe, Karsten Littau, Antonio Luque Aranda, Kudzai Magoche, Dorian Mandzukic, Simon Maris, Dylan Marshallsea, Casey McSweeney, Daniela Meyer, Philippos Michael, Marco Migliavacca, Nils von Minckwitz, Felix Morczinek, Andrei Musetescu, Ema Neimarlija, Javier Nieto Cano, Alvaro Oliveros Ibanez, Vera Pabst, Efthimia Papaefthimiou, Veronika Partelova, Albert Perez Cols, Nathaphon Phantounarakul, Tobias Puhlmann, Thomas Quisinsky, Ahmed Rihan, Matthias Rümmele, Emma Rytoft, Henrike Sauer, Dominik Sellitsch, Maik Seidel, Louise Seyb, Maximilian Schmidt Alvarez-Carcillan, Dongmin Shin, Lorenzo Javier Simón Santillana, Klemens Sitzmann, Florian Smutny, Kathrin Starcke, Primoz Strazar, Melissa Swick, Agnieszka Szymanska, Kristian Taaksalu, Johan Tali, Alexandra Tobescu, Alexander Turton, Max Unterfrauner, Ricardo Isaac Valencia Paez, Marion Waid, Marc Wieneke, Maike Wienmeier, Arne Wegner, Allison Weiler, Sung Woo Park, Haotian Yang, Mohamed Elyes Zahrouni, Djordje Zdravkovic, Joana Zielinska, Alexandra Zajko.