---
title: Steffen Köhl · HICONIUM
description: Steffen Köhl in the HICONIUM register — one file carrying their credit.
canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/people/steffen-kohl
image: https://hiconium.dev/og/people/steffen-kohl.png
---

> HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.dev/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`.
> Path: [Home](https://hiconium.dev/) › [People](https://hiconium.dev/people) › Steffen Köhl
> On this page: [Proportions first](#proportions-first) · [Advanced Design brief](#advanced-design-brief) · [One file carries this name](#one-file-carries-this-name)

![Portrait photograph of Steffen Köhl.](https://hiconium.dev/_derived/images/people/steffen-kohl/portrait.jpg.w1920.q75.webp)

People

# Steffen Köhl

Former Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design leader and SLR McLaren co-stylist

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Nationality | German |

Wikimedia Commons

The record

German automotive designer who joined Mercedes-Benz’s passenger-car design division in 1988, was named with Gorden Wagener as a stylist of the production SLR, and led Advanced Design from 2008 to 2024.

After graduating from the Pforzheim School for Transportation Design, Köhl joined Mercedes-Benz’s passenger-car design division in 1988. Boat International says his work there covered interior and exterior design. A June 2026 report by SG Pforzheim Eutingen identifies him as a former student of the then FHG and says that he led Advanced Design at Mercedes-Benz from 2008 to 2024.

Boat International lists Köhl’s contributions to Mercedes-Benz vehicles and show cars including the E-Class, CLK, SL, SLR, SLS, Bionic-Car and F800 Style. Il Giornale reports a one-year 2000 assignment in Woking on the SLR McLaren project. Peter Robinson’s 2003 Car and Driver preview calls Köhl and Gorden Wagener the production SLR’s stylists; Wagener later said he won the internal competition for the 1999 Detroit Vision SLR concept as a rookie.

Boat International records that since 2008 he led Mercedes-Benz’s Center for Global Advanced Design, while a 2026 report says that responsibility ended in 2024. Der Spiegel described him in 2010 as the head of Mercedes Advanced Design. He discussed the F 015’s exterior-design process with Architectural Digest in 2015, and Mercedes-Benz later quoted him on the shift from three-box forms to one-bow proportions for the EQS.

### Proportions first

Mercedes-Benz recorded Köhl’s view that progressiveness can require a radical approach and that everything starts with proportions, in its account of the EQS transition from three-box to one-bow design.

### Advanced Design brief

Der Spiegel’s 2010 report quoted Köhl on preparing Mercedes-Benz for a future in which conventional comfort and driving pleasure would no longer define the car.

The stations

1. 1988–2008 Mercedes-Benz passenger-car design division Interior and exterior design
2. 2008–2024 Mercedes-Benz Leader, Center for Global Advanced Design

The house

[![Mercedes-Benz](https://hiconium.dev/images/marques/full/mercedesbenz.svg)](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/mercedesbenz)

Credited through Mercedes-Benz Design.

In the register

## One file carries this name

- [Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Exterior designer · Mercedes-Benz Design 2003–2010 €800k 2003–2010 €800k Rating 86.0](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/mercedesbenz/slr-mclaren)

The files above are the register's own record of this name. [The people index](https://hiconium.dev/people) holds everyone the register credits.

In their words

> “We want to create something for people. Something that they like to look at, like to touch. Something they really love.”

Steffen Köhl · Mercedes-Benz, “The all-electric EQS heralds a new era of design” (undated)

Sources

- [caranddriver.com](https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15145266/mercedes-benz-slr-first-drive-review/)
- [caranddriver.com](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g70141683/mercedes-benz-design-chief-gorden-wagener-interview/)
- [boatinternational.com](https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-events/superyacht-design-festival/archive-2011-superyacht-design-symposium-speakers--28571)
- [boatinternational.com](https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-events/design-and-innovation-awards/meet-the-showboats-design-awards-judges--28545)
- [ilgiornale.it](https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/automotive/steffen-k-hl-designer-mercedes-e-larte-sedurre-lestetica-2236026.html)
- [mercedes-benz.co.nz](https://www.mercedes-benz.co.nz/passengercars/brand/mercedes-me-magazine/design-style/articles/eqs-design-steffen-kohl.html)
- [spiegel.de](https://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/mercedes-advanced-design-s-klasse-war-gestern-a-729600.html)
- [architecturaldigest.com](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/mercedes-benz-f015-concept-car-slideshow)
- [sg-pforzheim.de](https://www.sg-pforzheim.de/artikel-lesen/businessabend-der-sg-pforzheim-eutingen-und-der-sg-automobil-ag.html)
- [designpf.hs-pforzheim.de](https://designpf.hs-pforzheim.de/fileadmin/user_upload/uploads_redakteur_gestaltung/Studieren_Studiengaenge/Studiengangflyer/HS_PF_Studiengangfolder_TD_BA_Bogen_20230707_red.pdf)