Q&A with Giorgetto Giugiaro on his lifetime of design

Ask any aficionado who the greatest car designer of all time is and Giorgetto Giugiaro will be the name on most lips. Responsible for more than 200 vehicles, equating to some 60-million production cars on the road as well as dozens of concepts for the world’s finest car brands – not to mention cameras for Nikon, electronic organs for Bontempi and even a type of pasta – he is without equal.

Born on 7 August 1938 in Garessio, Northern Italy, he started his career with Fiat in the mid-50s, aged 17. Joining Bertone in 1959, his first signature cars included the 1963 Alfa Giulia Sprint GT and 1964 Alfa Canguro. After a brief stint at Ghia from 1965, he co-founded Italdesign in 1968. This firm’s list of hits is so long you need to take a deep breath, but try these production vehicles for starters, by turns practical and glamorous: the 1969 Suzuki Carry, 1971 Maserati Bora, 1971 Alfa Sud, 1974 VW Scirocco, 1974 VW Golf, 1978 Audi 80, 1978 BMW M1, 1979 Lancia Delta, 1980 Fiat Panda, 1993 Lexus GS300 and 2005 Fiat Grande Punto. Add a few beautifully quirky ones too like the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 that starred in Back to the Future and the unusually-windowed 1991 Subaru SVX and the diversity of brand and package is incredible.

Proposal for the DeLorean DMC-12

Concepts were equally numerous and important, starting with his low and angular wedges of the late 60s onwards like the 1968 Bizzarrini Manta, 1969 Alfa Iguana, 1970 VW Porsche Tapiro, 1971 Alfa Caimano, 1972 Maserati Boomerang, 1972 Lotus Esprit (later immortalised in James Bond’s The Spy who Loved Me) and even the 1974 Hyundai Pony. Then there were the mid-70s MPV trailblazers – the 1976 Alfa New York Taxi and 1978 Lancia Megagamma – long before Renault, Mitsubishi or Chrysler’s minivans.

Alfa New York taxi from 1976

Or the radical future-facing packages like the 1982 Capsula with its skateboard-style chassis and powertrain onto which various customisable bodies could be added, the 1986 Machimoto that re-imagined the Mini Moke for Space 1999 and the barn-doored, but tiny and cuboid 1992 Biga.

Then there were concepts that led directly to production vehicles like the softer-shaped 1993 Lucciola eco-influenced single-box city car that spawned the Daewoo Matiz and the stunningly curvaceous 2002 Alfa Romeo Brera concept which morphed into the Brera production car a few years later.

2002 Alfa Romeo Brera concept

Now 76, after 50-plus years in the business, he’s only just announced his retirement from Italdesign. Earlier this year, Car Design News had the pleasure of spending a day with this giant of design at his Turin HQ to talk about the secrets behind his greatest designs, what he’s learned along the way, his new role within the VW Group and why he’s not to be trusted with hand grenades.

Car Design News You were from a time when there was no such thing as a car design course, so what influenced you to start designing cars?

Giorgetto Giugiaro How does a person come to the place where he or she is? I would say it’s a random process, there’s no plan and it happens gradually. I come from a family of painters. It was a world of colours and shapes and I attended a high school whose main focus was art with the idea to follow that into university. But then I felt the need to experience a sort of autonomy and not to rely on the support of my family, as conditions after WWII were difficult. So I learnt technical drawing.

Giugiaro, with technical drawing skills in evidence

CDN Who else influenced your career choice?

GG My painting professor was the uncle of Dante Giacosa [the designer behind the Fiat Topolino and 500] and he told me the profession of painting would not be easy, especially as I had not been brought up in a rich family. He said the industrial world needed people with a creative gift. Through him I was invited to produce some work – hedonistic ones! – but what truly convinced Mr Giacosa at Fiat to recruit me at 17 years old was this double track of a three-year course of technical drawing in the evening while studying art during the day.

CDN Starting a three-year evening course of technical drawing at 14 you must have had a very grown-up attitude for a teenager?

GG Painting, my father explained to me is just one side of artistic creation, a 2D style of creation. A sketch of a table is very different from an executive drawing of how to actually make that table. I was very good at portraits but he wanted to bring me back down to earth.

CDN Was the notion of being a car designer even an aspiration back then?

GG No. When I was recruited by Fiat that world was all new to me. I started designing shapes of cars in black and white, then someone added colour, and little by little I was asked to design more, a wheel or the side of a car. I learned all the technical aspects of designing a car but after four years I thought, ‘I want to become an artist again’. I realised after years of being a mason within a crowd it would take years to become the architect.

The Bertone years

CDN What changed your mind back to cars?

GG While I was making preparations to join The Academy of Arts I met Nuccio Bertone at the 1959 Turin Motor Show. A friend was on Bertone’s stand and I told him I wanted to earn some money to buy a pair of skis and wondered whether he could he give me something to draw so I could pay for them. My friend introduced me and I showed some drawings. The designer at Bertone had just left and Mr Bertone said, ‘these colours are nice, but I need you to draw a real car’, so I said ‘okay, give me something to do and I’ll do it.’

Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Junior

CDN So how did you start working for Bertone?

GG I worked for the whole week to prepare these drawings. It was a way for Bertone to test my skills. Then without me knowing, he went to Alfa Romeo with my design and offered me 50 percent more money to work for him when he got positive feedback. I said, ‘but in three months’ time I will probably have to go on military service’, as it was compulsory then, but he needed someone to design the car, so he replied: ‘I’ll find a way.’

CDN And did Nuccio keep his promise?

Giugiaro’s sketch of his wife, from later in his career

GG When I received my call-up Mr Bertone arranged for me to go to the Alpine mountain soldiers section near Turin but in the evening I drew cars. Instead of doing military drills I stayed in a small office and I did portraits of the colonel, the marshal’s wife and so on. I designed the Alfa Romeo Giulia GT while I was in the barracks. Then I was seconded to Turin, two hours in the morning at the barracks and then back to Bertone’s office. Eventually I had to launch hand grenades but I said, ‘I have no training in this’. I lifted off the safety catch and all the other troops left the area quickly. I was the only one left [he’s laughing his head off at this point, recalling his fellow soldiers, clearly not convinced of his military skills, scattering the scene.]

CDN How did you and Nuccio Bertone get on?

GG Bertone had a very good creative designer before me called Franco Scaglione. He was a true artist but he did things when he wanted to, one day he was there, one day he was not. I was more disciplined so me and Mr Bertone got along very well.

CDN Nuccio Bertone is credited with discovering and nurturing a series of great designers. What was his gift?

GG Mr Bertone had a very good nose, he was intuitive, and could immediately detect the skills that a person had and that might suit him. He also had the great merit, as many did in the Renaissance, once he had identified you as a person with great skill, you had the freedom to work. It was the same with Gandini after me…

1963 Testudo is one of Giugiaro’s standout designs while at Bertone

CDN You created many great designs at Bertone but several stand out, particularly the 1963 Testudo?

GG At that time I would draw a prototype to be sold to a customer like a dress or a suit. Bertone produced small volumes and custom cars for Hollywood actors and industrialists, not showcars. The Testudo was the first car I designed with no client in mind, ‘just to show it’. Mr Bertone drove the car to the 1963 Geneva Motor Show and I was driving a custom-made Alfa Romeo 2600 Special for a customer while a mechanic drove a Fiat 600 behind us. On the way it started to snow, and I said ‘Mamma mia’, Mr Bertone is running some risks here, imagine if he slides?’ but there was no accident. Me and the mechanic had to wash the cars when we got there. I was 24.

CDN Happy times then. What prompted you to finally leave?

GG I left in 1965 as I got married and was offered a job at Ghia for double the money and a high management position Bertone didn’t want to grant me.

The Italdesign years

CDN What made you set up Italdesign in 1968?

GG I enjoyed working for Mr Bertone and at Ghia I designed the 1966 Maserati Ghibli which was a considerable success. They made a lot of money so I thought ‘why don’t I do this myself?’ Mr Mantovani, a production engineer, was a friend and so we set up this company that was styling and research but also technological engineering too. We didn’t want to manufacture the car. We designed like coachbuilders Bertone and Pininfarina but grasped the fact that building small volumes of cars was bound to end. Modern technology facilitates the possibility of small production runs within a volume-manufacturing factory, although that seemed unthinkable 30 years ago.

Sketch of the Lotus Esprit from 1971

CDN Can you explain your creative process?

GG I still use the same process based on mathematical master models using a draughtsman’s board. I do the colourful drawings afterwards, not before. The sketch is the starting point from which a 3D model will be designed. All the steps are there in the drawing. Once the final decisions are made on paper then the model is built.

CDN Do you ever let anyone else get involved or is it a one-man operation?

GG When I choose to do a car it’s me doing it. When I prepare a drawing it is shown to the customer alongside many other drawings. When you design a large volume production car, there are many proposals, one or two models submitted to the customer, and after making certain lines shorter and longer you need a team of people.

CDN But the starting point is always you?

GG Let’s say a customer wants me to design a car. I’ll be one of the many people doing the research for that. The customer will have all these drawings in front of them and together we pick a design. When it comes to executing the model, if the customer chooses another drawing other than mine, I still have the last word on the model, as long as they still remain within the philosophy of the project. We all work in synergy to get the best possible result.

CDN Some say so many classic Italian coachbuilder designs were so good is because they were one person’s vision carried out. Do you agree?

GG That’s the way it should be. There are many people at Italdesign but VW want me to stay. [He chuckles] I’m chained into another few years even though the retirement age at VW is 65! If I’m here I have the last word. However, they can all design cars here without my input because they’re so good.

Subaru SVX, complete with unique approach to glazing

CDN Beyond your seminal car designs, you’re also behind great original details. One of my favourites is the extra window graphic line, like on the Subaru SVX. Can you explain its inspiration?

GG Think about being on a plane, you can’t lower the window. So it’s almost a psychological thing, you’ll always want a window that opens in some way. The lower part is the only bit that opens on such cars but it still feels nice.

CDN Another repeated design detail is the lower glazed door section seen on many of your concepts. Why has it yet to make production though?

GG It allows you to see the road so well and on narrow roads in small villages you really need good visibility. But companies want to make sure they get their money back from such investments so they don’t surrender easily to the vision of somebody else. It’s a sort of an architectural game, you may like it or not, but would you ever have dreamt of all those skyscrapers with so much glass? They found the technology to protect the building from the heat and cold, so it will come on cars too.

CDN More broadly some of your success seems to stem from understanding the emotional triggers of design so well. Would you agree?

GG You can appeal to the irrational part of a human being as it’s the irrational part that’s overwhelming. But everything is mathematics in the end, whether someone is more or less beautiful comes down to measurements or proportions. Just like a piece of music, designing a car is about harmonising the whole as much as you can. People will not rationally understand it but they sense it. However, if you use a car everyday, you’ll get fed up if it doesn’t work right. That’s why we’re getting more functional cars, but we’re moving towards a sort of dullness. It’s more and more about small differences.

Fiat Panda places function at the fore

CDN What was the thinking behind the first Fiat Panda, as this seemed very functional, much less overtly beautiful?

GG We wanted a spacious car and to give people with less money the chance to have new experiences. But those who had little money did not want this car, at least not right away. They preferred a second-hand prestige car like a BMW or an Alfa Romeo they could show off. The Fiat Panda was appreciated by architects and professionals who already owned a car. It was a bit like denim jeans. When they were just worn by masons and plumbers they were not that successful but when Hollywood actors started to wear them then everybody did. Once people overcame that uneasiness they bought the Panda and appreciated its functionality.

Giugiaro’s Nikon camera

CDN Beyond cars, how did your non-car design department start?

GG It began by chance. Nikon visited and wondered whether I would like to design its new camera. Of course I didn’t know about all the parts so they guided me in avoiding the technical problems which may be linked to design. We studied a lot of ergonomics and made very few changes – but they were huge changes for Nikon – compared to the former F3 model. I designed the F4, F5 and F6. Out of curiosity.

CDN This led to clothing, ‘Giugiaro Uomo’, sports equipment and even pasta. In hindsight were these experiences a distraction?

Marelle pasta designed for Voiello

GG Whatever you design, you always learn something new. I remember how time-consuming the pasta design was. We went to the factory and saw the extruding machine and the idea of my pasta design came from something similar, the tubular rubber seals you find on car doors. The production principle is the same. I cut it in half and said ‘let’s do something like that’. The purpose was marketing, we only made it for a year, but I ended up on Newsweek magazine – not because of my cars – but because of this pasta. The pasta took the sauce very well. I did stuff that I liked but we were so busy. Days, months and years elapsed so quickly that I found myself old…

New VW dawn

CDN What made you sell Italdesign to the VW Group after 40-plus years?

GG I realised the world was becoming more ‘merged’. Before entering the VW Group our main customers were Chinese companies without dedicated design staff but we saw all the manufacturers expanding their in-house teams. We worked for Korean and Japanese brands too before they got their design centres. So we saw our design space shrinking. Chinese brands don’t want to spend a lot of money so we witnessed a shrinking of margins too. However, we had good orders when we signed this alliance, we were not hopeless, we had bargaining power.

Giugiaro Parcour concept from 2013

CDN Who asked who?

GG I was on excellent terms with Ferdinand Piech, we are real friends from the 1970s when I designed the first Golf. We met again at Geneva 2010, and I had come to the realisation that my company would need backing from outside to expand in this competitive world, and he said: ‘Do you want to become part of our Group? You’ll keep running it as you do now, we want 90 percent and 10 percent will be with your family.’ The Group has ten brands, and there’s a lot of fun to be had, so I’m very happy.

CDN What’s it like working with fellow Italian Walter de Silva at VW?

GG There’s a perfect feeling between us, we have the same vision, it’s a flawless collaboration. We work together to fine-tune the tasks entrusted to us. He manages this huge group but he’s so intuitive and insightful, it’s unbeatable. He’ll see a small flaw in a model right away.

CDN From your unique perspective how do you think car design has changed in the last 50 years?

GG There’s been an incredible change in terms of quality, safety, noise reduction, how the vehicle makes up for driver error, and an unbelievable aesthetic and technological progress. It went beyond our expectations.

The Giugiaro Museum in Italy

CDN In what ways might aesthetics improve again?

GG Technology has provided incredible support to the aesthetics of cars. A major evolution. There can only be a revolution from the architectural viewpoint when the way the car is powered changes, since a human still sits inside. Cars will get more comfortable with functionality that can be grasped straight away and become more sculptural with details like light clusters that exceed people’s needs. I can gaze at a painting and while there is no necessity for it – I can live without it – it meets another need. So maybe there will be more artistic design, with all its details.

CDN Where do you see car design in 50 years?

GG It depends on how human societies evolve. Maybe we will have a rucksack and ‘phifft!’ [he makes high-pitched, closed-mouth whistle] it will make us fly. In New Zealand they exist already, so then who will care about cars. If we have suitable clothing and a computer managing all these flying beings, who knows?

CDN Which car did you wish you designed?

GG The Citroën DS19.

CDN And which one are you glad you didn’t?

GG Frrrr… [his lips vibrate with a large outtake of breath] I’d rather not say…

CDN Working so hard, do you ever seek to get away from it all?

GG We humans are made this way, our mind, brain and heart absorbs things – whether at an exhibition or wherever – so you keep on working. I come to my office and start seeing the shapes I want. At home I just paint, there’s not a single picture of a car at home. There is just a picture of the Brera concept in my mountain shed to remind me of my job. It’s 1400m above sea level, but I open the window and can see San Remo, the sea and ships.

CDN I’m sensing it’s more of a log cabin? My shed only fits a few bikes!

GG Yes, it’s a heated log cabin, I go there on my own, in my Panda 4x4, but in the winter you can’t even use a snow motorbike, you have to use snow shoes. I went twice last winter but my wife does not want to go. ‘What would I do there?’ she says. That’s my mundane life! [and he chuckles again].

CDN After 50-plus years in the business is it hard to keep being inspired?

GG It’s a self-generative process like riding a bike up a mountain. It can be tiresome and you say ‘I’m never coming back’, but when you ride down and see another mountain you keep doing it again and again. It’s a challenge to reach a destination, with an aim you never know if you will achieve. Friends might say, ‘you have money, why bother? but being in touch with young people is like food to eat. However, in a dream, I have already dictated instructions for a huge painting workshop – no more cars, just painting – so I’ll avoid people saying to me, ‘why didn’t you choose that colour?’

CDN What advice would you give an aspiring designer?

GG Have plenty of goodwill and be knowledgeable about all the technical possibilities to fulfil a dream. Because dreams must be possible.

Branded sugar packets at Giugiaro’s HQ