"It's better to have a good idea than a good drawing" says Pagani designer

Alberto Piccolo has spent nearly 20 years with the hypercar icon Pagani, joining as an intern and today serving as advanced design lead. 

The thoughtful Italian spoke to Car Design News from Munich at the fourth annual Car Design Event (CDE), and shared his journey from 'dreamer' to 'designer', discussed the challenges of working with carbonfibre, and why students should put ideas first. 

Alberto will also be joining us as a speaker at Car Design Dialogues Milan in April. Register for the event here: https://cddmilan.cardesignnews.com/

Alberto Piccolo: I joined Pagani in 2007, so it's been quite a bit [of time] already. And it was a joke for me because I wanted to try and join without truly believing it [was possible]. 

I was moving from the architecture field and I wanted to try the automotive field; I was in love with Pagani. It was my one shot tryout and I wanted to try, and it worked. I started as an intern doing configurations with customers. Then I gained a bit of expertise day by day on the design and also details. In my 19th year, I became the advanced design lead.

Car Design News: Amazing. That's a dream first job, isn't it?

AP: Yes, absolutely. I say that, when I'm talking with a lot of interesting people, for me, Monday is never heavy.

CDN: You don't have the Sunday scaries... Now, we got up close with the Huayra R downstairs, which features this amazing deep blue carbon exterior. Is that something you think of at the beginning of the project — that you want to celebrate this material and showcase its performance qualities?

AP: Well, carbonfibre is the main material used in Pagani automobiles because it was the technological dream of Mr. Pagani since the 80s. And all our cars are built with this material from the beginning. It's considered the main material and so it must be beautiful. You can paint the car with a transparent coat or also you can cover it, but even if you cover it it must be perfect because it's still partially exposed. The craftsmanship of our workers must be perfect in order to make all the layers and all the lines of the carbon match perfectly.

CDN: Because those fibres need to line up.

AP: Oh, yes. They must align also in the middle of the car and with each panel. The lines on the door, for example, must be the same direction and the same alignment with the rear and the front bonnet.

CDN: Because I suppose if it's off slightly, it could ruin the silhouette in a way.

AP: Yeah. That's why it is conceived to work as a pattern across the whole car. 

CDN: There are students from Pforzheim and Munich here at Car Design Event. As someone that's been in the industry for nearly two decades, do you have any advice for them — something you wish you had learned earlier on in your career?

AP: Well, this is something that I really believe in, but also Mr. Pagani, who is teaching us that to have a lot of freedom and fantasy, you must be have some rules already deep inside of your mind. Today, students have access to a lot of new tools, like AI or whatever, but you can never settle on the easy side of that, because a good result is always made by your mind. 

Maybe you can do better sketches or renderings with new tools, but in the end, you have to know the rules about how to design and how to draw — technical drawings, using cylinders, pyramids and everything like that. Otherwise you have no basis. It's like a home: you can make a nice home, a nice building, but with no structural support it it will not work. 

CDN: You need the foundations.

AP: Yeah, you need the foundations. 

CDN: So, in a way — and this is very cheesy, Alberto -- is the best tool in a designer's toolbox, your mind? You can have artistic talent, but you need to have the idea first.

AP: Absolutely. I think it's much better a good idea instead of a good drawing. Because a good drawing doesn't mean it has good content, whereas a good idea can have a bad drawing. The importance is in the content.

CDN: Exactly. Well, Alberto, it's brilliant to chat with you and we're looking forward to seeing you next month during Milan Design Week.

AP: Thank you very much, see you there!