Written by independent automotive journalist Chris Griggs

Lineup of brand-new Bentleys outside Hangar One at the Scottsdale Airpark in Arizona.

Bentley Design Director Stefan Sielaff

Growing up in his family’s tobacco shop in Germany, the young Stefan Sielaff never set out to be a car designer. He always had a passion for the arts, creating and sculpting with marble. He admittedly had a longtime interest in cars, but never figured out how to blend the two until later in his adolescence. After graduating high school, he earned himself a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London through an internship program with Audi. There he studied design, winning several competitions and accolades. After graduation, he went back to Audi, where he rose up the ranks, eventually becoming head of design in 1997. Some of his most well-known designs over time include the Audi A1 and A7 and the Mercedes-Benz CLS. In 2015 he was named design director of Bentley, where he was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of working for a prestigious British luxury brand.

Sielaff is known for finding inspiration outside the automotive world, often turning to the worlds of high fashion, fine art or architecture, with names such as Norman Foster, Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid spurring his creativity and resulting in truly timeless design. Most recent examples of Sielaff’s work can be seen in two Bentley models, the new Bentayga SUV and the redesigned Continental GT. While he utilizes nontraditional design influences, he still has great respect for the brand and approaches every design with genuine respect for the heritage, once stating, “The Mulliner R-Type from 1952 was a fantastically innovative statement for its time. The beautiful proportions and the unique treatment of the surfaces … these are characteristics you still see in Bentleys today – and it’s something we will continue, long into the future.”

Sielaff has become a master at blending unconventional inspiration and pushing a drive to the future, all tempered by heritage and pedigree. His works have become masterpieces of their own, inspiring generations of designers to come.