Interview with Gustaf Westman’s Mercedes-Benz CLA gear
It’s a very pink day for Gustaf Westman and his collection of camping gear and playful objects for the Mercedes-Benz CLA. The Swedish designer is the second act of the car company’s Class of Creators initiative after Ice Spice’s molten chrome car. Let’s go back to March 13th, 2025: we’re in Rome, Italy, the city where Mercedes-Benz unveils the CLA for the first time. A few hours before that, designboom sat down with Gustaf Westeman for an interview, ahead of his art pieces debut. It’s a gloomy day, but the photos he shows us are all bright and pink.
‘My sketch process is making a kind of function, so you can use the vehicle in another way,’ the designer tells designboom. ‘Basically, it’s a car that has a picnic table at the rear that you can slide out and even sit on. It also has a tent on the car’s roof where you can sleep. It’s life-size. Let me show you.’ It’s exactly how he describes it: the Mercedes-Benz CLA shines in pink with a glossy surface, and right above it is a cupola-shaped tent that the vehicle can bring anywhere. These were only sketches when we met. In the evening of May 22nd, 2025, nearly two months after our interview, Gustaf Westman shows the real-life models at the Protein Studios in London’s East End.
all images courtesy of Gustaf Westman
Collection with ‘star’ plates and hotdog tray
The Gustaf Westman spin on the Mercedes-Benz CLA is family-friendly and perky. The stowable picnic table at the rear slides in and out of the chunky pink car. There are two benches on both sides, then the sliding table between them. Just below the Mercedes-Benz insignia, there are four tubes that pop out of the car, serving as the wine glass holder for the diners. The pink Mercedes-Benz CLA and its pink tent aren’t the only ones in pink. Gustaf Westman has made an entire collection for the Class of Creators initiative. There’s even a pink roll-up backpack that, once unfolded, reveals lots of plates, cups, and some hotdog trays (yes, the ones with buns). It also doubles as a picnic blanket. Once laid out, it has nine distinctive squares, reminiscent of bubble wrap but without the circular form.
Picking up one of these circular plates, which is a recurring theme in the designer’s repertoire, it’s so clear that the design is patterned after the car company’s iconic emblem star. That’s good, though, because there are three spaces for food, so diners can eat three different meal types at once. Other than that, the designer pays more attention to the rounded edges of the plates. ‘When you look at the CLA’s base, it has the same base as the plates. I wanted to work with that base because it’s really nice. So, I used the existing lines around the Mercedes-Benz car and extruded them to make them chunky and fluffy,’ he explains to designboom.
picnic table at the rear that users can slide out and even sit on
Gustaf Westman’s vibrant colors for Mercedes-Benz CLA
That chunky and fluffy feel reappears in the hotdog tray. It’s a thick but cute slab, like a jolly-looking charcuterie board, with multiple pockets to hold hotdog buns on. ‘I just like how they kind of capture the shape and then they disappear. They have no endings, which gives these objects a life,’ Gustaf Westman shares with us. As our conversation moves forward, the designer says this is his first time venturing into the automobile world.
Even so, the design approach isn’t so different from when he creates homeware and other party-ful objects. ‘It’s more that it takes longer to understand what I want to do. I have to understand the Mercedes-Benz CLA first before starting to design the collection,’ says Gustaf Westman. In the end, he has achieved that enlightenment, and it pours through his ever-bright use of colors. It’s a staple of his works, and one that he’s not looking to change.
the Mercedes-Benz CLA shines in pink with a glossy surface and a cupola-shaped tent on its roof
‘I see these colors as helping you understand the shape. I like the idea that you can understand an object in a second. Then, I also don’t want the color to make you feel too much because I want you to focus on the shape,’ he tells us. For the designer, the muted and hushed-down shades give a mysterious feeling, and he’s not looking for that. It’s easy then to look at Gustaf Westman’s works, including the playful collection for the Mercedes-Benz CLA. They’re light and attuned to happy inklings. The shades recall the time between spring and summer, the airy afternoon in a garden or park, after lunch and before the sun begins to set.
Our conversation with the Swedish designer is coming to a close. Before we get up, he says he has tried playing with AI tools because it’s fun. He thinks it’s bad, though. He hasn’t used it in any of his designs, and he has no foreseeable plans to adopt them. ‘I could just go on Pinterest if I want to see and do those kinds of things,’ he says. Is he on Pinterest all the time? ‘I try not to be,’ he replies. It’s a platform that lets users organize their pinned images in a digital board, and that’s not him. He’s chaotic, he says, and by definition, it means disorder. We disagree, then, because in Gustaf Westman’s purchasable collection for Mercedes-Benz CLA, it’s anything but chaotic.
there’s even a pink roll-up backpack
once unfolded, the backpack doubles as a picnic blanket
view of the hotdog tray
the CLA exterior lines inspire the tray’s design
Star Plate with the car company’s emblematic star
there’s enough food space on the Star Plate
portrait of Gustaf Westman during the CLA unveiling in Rome, Italy | image © designboom
the designer holding his winged mirror in London
project info:
designer: Gustaf Westman | @gustafwestman
company: Mercedes-Benz | @mercedesbenzusa
initiative: Class of Creators
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