Virgil Abloh to create exclusive artwork for Mercedes-Benz

Virgil Abloh, in collaboration with Gorden Wagener, chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz, has created a limited edition artwork inspired by the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. At the moment, only a few graphic elements of the project have been revealed and its name, Project Geländewagen, which will be presented digitally on 8 September. The presentation was supposed to take place, in fact, during Paris Men's Fashion Week, then cancelled due to the coronavirus emergency, and only later came the decision to turn it into a digital event. Bettina Fetzer, the automaker's vice president of marketing, explained the decision:

«It’s an opportunity for us to use all that creative power that we’re getting out of these projects and see how we can redefine what a digital event could look like. We have chosen an approach with distinctive storytelling. Basically, we take the audience to our journey and to Gorden and Virgil’s creative minds».

The exact nature of the project remains undefined, but assumptions can be made from the information provided by Mercedes-Benz. For example, the announcement that a miniature replica of the project will be auctioned immediately after the digital launch may suggest that Abloh is working on a G-Class model that will carry its signatures – model that will be available to a select number of customers in a way already adopted by Mercedes-Benz in 1996 with its collaboration with Nigo for the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL BAPE , created in only six models. The further step for this project, however, will be the transformation of an exclusive car into a collectible object that can be sold in series. Proceeds will go to support humanitarian ONGs – but the goal is to redefine Mercedes-Benz as a brand as a "design brand and luxury label", in the words of designer Gorden Wagener.