Giorgetto Giugiaro: the world’s greatest living car designer

1980 Fiat Panda, one of Giorgetto Giugiaro’s designs

(Image credit: Giorgetto Giugiaro)

The first VW Golf, Fiat Panda and Maserati Ghibli; the 1970s Lotus Esprit immortalised under water in James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me and the ‘gull-winged’ 1980s DeLorean DMC-12 in Back to the Future; the elegant early 1960s Alfa Romeo Giulia GT and super-practical late 1960s Suzuki Carry; or the mid-1970s everyman Hyundai Pony that kickstarted the Korean brand and the late 1970s BMW M1 supercar: Giorgetto Giugiaro created them all.

These design classics – most of which were developed by Italdesign, the design and engineering company he co-founded in 1968 – sit within a list of 300-plus production vehicles, dozens of concept cars, as well as cameras for Nikon, keyboards for Bontempi and even a type of pasta.

At the forefront of car design for five decades, Giorgetto Giugiaro sold the last of his shares in Italdesign to the VW Group in 2015 and set up GFG Style with his son Fabrizio in Turin to offer automotive, architecture and industrial design services. Now 87, Giugiaro is still chairman of the company and had a chat with Wallpaper* during a recent visit to the UK.

Giorgetto Giugiaro on car design then and now

Wallpaper*: What are your views on artificial intelligence?

Giorgetto Giugiaro: When technology is able to support your ideas, you can exploit it. Can artificial intelligence do better [than humans]? Maybe, but there always needs to be someone responsible. Design is not democracy. You need one person to decide. But I have to admit, that staying on the beach and pressing a button and the job is done [is appealing].

W*: You predicted over a decade ago that future cars would be more comfortable with easy-to-grasp functionality. It seems the first part of that prediction came true, but not the second. Why is so much of today’s car design user experience so bad?

GG: To ‘fish’ for a greater audience, car makers try to add more features. And for some, the user experience becomes worse. As a parallel, there are so many features in cars nowadays that we don’t have at home. So of course we are not used to them.

Hyundai Pony Coup&eacute; prototype, 1974 — Hyundai Pony Coupé prototype, 1974

‘There’s no need to go to Disneyland because everything is already inside the car. There is too much’
Giorgetto Giugiaro

The touch functions on a car can also be dangerous. The interaction between human and car is so much faster. Before, you needed to move a stalk or push a button. Now you move close [to a screen with your fingers] and you’ve already activated something. Looking at some futuristic interiors there’s no need to go to Disneyland because everything is already inside the car, with lights and more. There is too much.

W*: You say good design needs to be ‘honest’ for the public to accept it. Do you think some modern EVs are not honest enough and that’s partly why they’re not being accepted?

GG: It is a commercial problem in that there needs to be financial advantages for the manufacturers. And [for consumers] there’s a shortage of information and a psychological problem: when you choose a product, you want it to say something about you.

Maserati 3200 GT, 1998 — Maserati 3200 GT

W*: Given the variety of engines and motors that customers can choose today, plus greater safety legislation, do you think you ‘had it easier’ designing cars in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s?

GG: [Chuckles] Contrary to what you think, the more rules there are, the smarter the product can be. You have to think harder. When aerodynamics started to be taken seriously, it was a problem for designing cars, but over time it helped to improve the product.

W*: Why do you think your Lotus Esprit design has stood the test of time (beyond its role in several 007 movies)?

GG: It is the simplicity of the whole and the proportions. It’s the same with a man’s or a woman’s face, the proportion between the parts and the simplicity of the lines. This gives the beauty, the power to last. Looking at the car now, I realise it didn’t get so old.

W*: What do you think of Apple’s design work on the iPhone?

GG: This device made us lazy, so we don’t even remember the phone numbers of our friends and families anymore. And it removes our time to create, as we look at what other people are doing and because it does everything.

W*: …but you still have one!

GG: [Everyone laughs] It does help me talk easily with friends in other parts of the world. And it makes me think: if we have a device so powerful today, what will humankind be able to do in another 50 years?

Giugiaro at the Lotus Esprit's 50th anniversary celebrations in Norfolk, 2025

GFGStyle.it, @GFG.Style

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Guy Bird is a London-based writer, editor and consultant specialising in cars and car design, but also covers aviation, architecture, street art, sneakers and music. His journalistic experience spans more than 25 years in the UK and global industry. See more at www.guybird.com