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Posted by: Anthony Lim

Moving beyond the boundaries of automotive design, the designers at Mercedes-Benz are set to apply their styling expertise in other transport-related areas in the coming future - think air and sea, and you get the picture. Oh, and furniture and lifestyle products and industrial design too.

Fancy a Benz chair?

That's the portfolio of the newly established "Mercedes-Benz Style" division, which will undertake both commissioned work, where the rights to the styling service are sold to the product manufacturer, and also the allocation of design licences, in which a product manufacturer will be granted the right to use the styling, but all rights to the styling remain with Mercedes-Benz.

The division has begun its activities by working on styling the exclusive interior appointments of a helicopter, as well as the exterior design of a luxury yacht. The helicopter, the Eurocopter EC145, was unveiled jointly by Eurocopter and Mercedes-Benz at the ongoing European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition 2010 (EBACE) in Geneva.

A luxury yacht styled by Merc sound good to you?

The special edition EC145 Mercedes-Benz Style, as it's called, has an interior conceived in a styling project led by the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in Como, Italy, and draws inspiration from the company's R-Class.

Inside, you'll find comfortable seats with exclusive materials coupled with sumptuous wood for the floor and ceiling; the seat upholstery in the cockpit and cabin is available in deluxe materials and a range of colours, likewise the choice of woods as well.

For the cabin layout, which can seat eight people, Mercedes-Benz opted for a modular approach - all seats are mounted on rails and can be quickly and easily reconfigured or removed to make room for luggage. There are also three multi-function boxes with features such as a cool box, cup holder, table, a 15-inch monitor and DVD player. Ambient lighting borrowed from the E- and S-Class cars can be adjusted and dimmed in various colours.

The interior offers supreme flexibility for both business and private travel. A partition wall - with fully retractable windows - separates the cockpit from the cabin, with extra storage space provided by drawers. To boot, there's a multi-purpose, high-capacity luggage compartment in the tail.