http://www.gianpietropasquali.com/
see also my post
The figure of the designer is often spoken of in a romantic way. He who has the freedom of expression, who creates the lines of the cars of the future on a blank sheet of paper with his pencil.
The man who has the supreme power to shape the forms and impressions of cars, to which many of us also become sentimental.
In fact, sometimes the profession of designer should be understood as a vocation (it's no coincidence that those who are car designers have always wanted to do that...); "When I was a kid, I only designed cars", I often say myself, and it makes me smile that this is really what connects all of us in the world.
A little bit, each of us wants to be a car designer.
Let's open a parenthesis and talk about the social people.
There are those who want to be car designers by posting beautiful renderings, those who pose as experts in the field, those who adulate themselves, and those who discredit icons of the past as long as they talk about them. The social media, which has no filters, is fertile ground for these manoeuvres (and hats off to those who manage to emerge from this reality as professionals).
However, to be successful in one way or another, substance is absolutely needed. And that is what we really need today. We are surrounded by pretenders, by nebulisers, who we find in all fields, in all positions and in every role in society, with all kinds of pockets.
And then there are those who still believe that there is a chance to change the way they see things.
I would like to give you some food for thought on the real designers who are not just the glorious names of yesteryear, but who work with a lot of study, dedication and sacrifice and have always worked behind the scenes. The era of the big names who put their unmistakable signature on an entire car (sometimes not showing the public what the other men behind them contributed) is coming to an end.
Walter De Silva has left Italdesign to launch his first collection of women's shoes. Giorgetto Giugiaro is enjoying his retirement, leaving his surname to the Germans with multi-million dollar ventures.
The various Ercole Spada, Marcello Gandini, Leonardo Fioravanti are (sadly) long gone from the scene where they became legendary.
But someone has to design the new cars?
One is naturally inclined to think that a new car comes from the pen of one man, but basically the person who conceived the lines is the totality of the characters who revolve around the project. Everyone has developed something. The general line, the proportions, the distribution of volume were dictated by the technology that inhabits the interior, by studies, tests, research, personal taste and the talent of the designers and engineers.
The development team usually consists of a chief designer who leads several teams.
The exterior designers (exterior, body), who work in close contact with the engineers, who in turn are divided into specialised groups for the different areas of mechanics, safety and aerodynamics.
The interior designers (passenger compartment), who work with the structural, electronics and safety engineers.
The team of colour and trim designers who develop materials, fabrics and colours for the different versions of the vehicle.
The head of the aforementioned team must also respond to requests from the management, which in turn works with marketing to research the sector and define the best product for the market in question (because it is always a product to be sold).
To produce a new car, a car manufacturer invests unimaginable sums and does so, of course, with the certainty that it will be profitable (and that is why the cars sometimes look so similar). I'll stop here or I'll start talking about the new Giulia too.
So, to return to the romantic idea of the designer, we have to conclude that there is not much left of the romanticism. Today's designer has to deal with the pressure of decision-making that comes from ownership, budgets, marketing, technical decisions, derivations from previous cars, etc., etc.
But we should not think that this task was very different in the days of the big names.
When we talk about a successful car that is now twenty years old, the Alfa Romeo 156, are we sure that it was Walter De Silva who took up pen and paper to design this magnificent and well-proportioned saloon, or was he at the head of a team of very talented designers (including Antonio Rosti, now at Italdesign, whom I was able to meet in person and who told me about the life and death of this magnificent car) who remained almost entirely in the shadow of the leading name?
The same goes for the new Ferraris, for the new Lamborghinis, where the names of the team leaders eclipse the names of the young designers (who perhaps had the real insight into the project). It would be interesting to find out the names behind the cars built in recent years by discovering fascinating and relatively unknown personalities. One day they could become the various Gandini or Giugiaro who were behind the scenes of the Bertone brand when they were young and made it a legend.
I would like to mention another concept.
I have read misleading articles that focus on a completely distorted issue. It is a common thought that the problem of the low attractiveness of the design of Italian cars is due to economic aspects. Some have written: "It is not always true that there is no money, the question is what it is spent on. It seems that there is a lack of money to invest in research and innovation and to pay a designer for a good design, but there is money to conquer the market with advertising campaigns [...]".
It is inconceivable to think that if you pay a designer more or pay a designer who costs more, you will get a better design.
Certainly Italy is not one of the countries where car designers are most appreciated, not even economically. Abroad, Italian designers are weighed on a different scale, but in no case is the commitment commensurate with the salary. The problem, on the other hand, is often due to the reasons already mentioned, especially anything that relates to the subsequent certainty of sale, and almost always the design is influenced by market research.
To give an example: I remember that twenty years ago, when I was studying design at the Sapienza in Rome, a colleague of mine who came back from an internship at Fiat told us that he and other guys had spent six months studying the rounding of the corners of the figure of the square to find the "most reassuring" one. I didn't understand it at the time.... Then, in the following years, they appeared everywhere at Fiat, even in the new Panda and the 500L, the "soothing" cars for the Italian family.
In short, the role of the designer has always been to find a way through the intricate labyrinths of the industrial world, where the first objective is to create a convincing product that appeals to the purist, the brand loyalist, the nostalgic or the businessman who changes his car every year, as well as to the housewife who steers her husband towards one particular car rather than another.
Fortunately, there are still good designers out there, I know many with incredible visions who work away from the limelight but contribute in untold proportions to the most beautiful cars of recent times.
Car design is one of the most beautiful professions in the world, and I hope that one day, in the not too distant future, the various CEOs and design politicians will also understand this; leaving more room for creativity can only be beneficial, also for marketing, which should step back a little more.
Gian Pietro Pasquali
