Ital styling
| Ital styling | |
|---|---|
| legal form | SrL |
| founding | 1967 |
| resolution | 1968 |
| Seat | Turin , Italy |
| management | Giorgio Giugiaro |
| Branch | Design studio |
Ital Styling was a short-lived Italian design studio that Giorgio Giugiaro ran in Turin in 1967 and 1968 . During this time, a few designs for automobile bodies were created, but with one exception they were not taken into series production. In 1968 Giugiaro founded the successor company Italdesign , which has been one of the leading Italian design studios since the 1970s.
Company history
The industrial designer Giorgio Giugiaro, born in 1938, took over the management of the design department of the Turin-based coachbuilder Bertone in 1959, succeeding Franco Scaglione . In 1965 he switched to competitor Ghia , who soon ran into economic and entrepreneurial difficulties. There were several changes of ownership. A former Dominican military ruler was followed in 1967 by the American company Rowan Controller , whose owner Amory Haskell appointed his brother-in-law, the Argentine-Italian racing driver and automobile manufacturer Alejandro de Tomaso , as managing director. Depending on the source, shortly before or shortly after the takeover by De Tomaso, Giugiaro gave up his job at Ghia and founded Ital Styling, based in Turin. Some claim that De Tomaso, known for his irascibility, “made Giugiaro go”. Ital styling was closely related to Ghia; most of the projects were commissioned for Ghia. In the fall of 1967, the American designer Tom Tjaarda also worked temporarily for the company before he became head of design at Ghia, taking on Giugiaro's previous role.
Influenced by the work for Isuzu, Giugiaro tried in the second half of 1967 to offer not only services in the field of design, but also more extensive construction work. The reason for this was Giugiaro's emerging involvement in the development of the Alfasud compact car . To ensure the necessary technical know-how, Giugiaro connected with Aldo Mantovani, who had been production manager at Fiat for 20 years. Together they founded in February 1968 and at the Turin Motor Show 1968 with which Bizzarrini Manta exhibited its first show car.
Ital Design has become one of the most important design studios in the world. From 2010 Giugiaro gradually sold his shares to the Volkswagen group. Since 2015 he and his son Fabrizio have been running the GFG Progetti company in Moncalieri , which develops concept vehicles primarily for Asian clients.
Projects by Ital Styling
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Ital Styling's first project was preparing the Isuzu 117 for series production . Giugiaro designed the hatchback body of the coupé while he was still at Ghia. For reasons of capacity, Isuzu was unable to implement the design for series production; the task was instead entrusted to Giugiaro's company. In parallel with this process, Ital Styling carried out individual design contracts as a subcontractor for Ghia in the course of 1967. The work of Ital Stylings, which is formally attributed to Carrozzeria Ghia, includes the Maserati Simun show car and the Checker Centurion concept vehicle , the design of which was largely due to Tom Tjaarda. Another Giugiaro design of the Ital styling era is the body of the Rowan Ghia, a small electric vehicle whose development was funded by Ghia's current owner, Rowan Controller. Ital Styling's best-known project is the body of the four-door Iso Fidia sedan , which in turn was commissioned by Ghias. The Fidia, which competed with the Maserati Quattroporte , was in the luxury sports sedan segment and was advertised as the fastest sedan in the world. It is the only design by Ital Styling that resulted in series production; almost 200 copies of the Fidia were made in six years.
literature
- Wolfgang Blaube: ItalDesign and Giugiaro: the story . Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 50
- Markus Caspers: Designing Motion: Automobildesigner from 1890 to 1990 , Birkhäuser, 2016, ISBN 9783035607772
- Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani , Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-8896796412
- Giorgio Giugiaro: design mission for the automotive industry . In: Hans-Hermann Braess, Ulrich Seiffert (Hrsg.): Automobildesign und Technik: Formgebung, functionality, Technik , Springer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 9783834894113 , p. 180 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani , Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-8896796412 , p. 273 f.
- ↑ Tjaarda's biography on the website www.tom-tjaarda.net (accessed December 6, 2019).
- ↑ Markus Caspers: Designing Motion: Automobildesigner from 1890 to 1990 , Birkhäuser, 2016, ISBN 9783035607772 , p. 110.
- ^ Giorgio Giugiaro: Design Mission for the Automotive Industry . In: Hans-Hermann Braess, Ulrich Seiffert (eds.): Automobildesign und Technik: Formgebung, functionality, Technik , Springer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 9783834894113 , p. 183.
- ↑ Frank Volk: Audi takes full control of Italdesign Giugiaro. In: Automobil Produktion , July 2, 2015.
- ↑ Wolfgang Blaube: ItalDesign and Giugiaro: the story . Oldtimer Markt, issue 10/2008, p. 50.
- ^ Daniel Strohl: The Italian Checker - Ghia Centurion. www.hemmings.com, February 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
- ↑ Richard M. Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930–1980 . New York (Beekman House) 1984. ISBN 0-517-42462-2 , p. 670.
- ↑ Iso Rivolta sales prospectus (accessed December 6, 2019).