Emanuele Nicosia, a graduate from the Royal College of Art in London, has more than 30 years of experience in designing production and concept cars.
During his stint with Centro Ricerche Pininfarina, he worked with some of the world’s most renowned brands, including, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Peugeot, Cadillac and Honda. Presently he heads the Automobile Design program at DYPDC (Center for Automotive Research and Studies) which is an initiative by the DY Patil Group and Indian designer Dilip Chabria.
Saurav Bhattacharjee finds out what more is to him, than the reputation that precedes him- of being one of the best in the automobile design sector on the planet. Following are afew excerpts from the interview:
Q. There is a time in each student’s life when he decides what he wants to pursue further academically. So, when was that moment for you?
A. Let me tell you an incident from my childhood in Turin, Italy. I was out on a walk with my grandfather when my uncle joined in. The conversation that we had has stuck out till today. My grandfather told my uncle that he disliked going on walks with me as I would go hug every car wheel I could on my walks. My mother always had to clean up my clothes which got dirty in the act.
That was the kind of passion I had for cars, since I was 2 years old. What fascinated me was the shape and design of the cars.
Q. What does a car mean to you? How do you see it, as a designer?
A. Cars are merely not metal bodies, they are Creatures. Creatures with beautiful souls!
Q. Which of these do you drive?
A. Well, I own an 1979 Spitfire, The Alfa Romeo Duetto, a Fiat 124 Sport, the BMW 530 to name a few.
Q. A further look into your fleet, which bikes do you spawn?
A. A Ducati 888 Superbike, the Ducati 900 Monster, and the Yamaha FZR 1000.
Q. What is the difference between the designer of yesterday and of today?
A. Earlier, there were designers who specialized in specific designs. So companies offered their design work to them. For Example, designs of the Hood. Some used to specialize in the curved design while the sharp-edged hood was another designer’s forte. So the mainstream entities used to employ them according to the design they wished to float. Now, automobile design has been commercialized. A good car designer today must be good at automobile design on the wider perspective but his niche or USP had more of an importance yesterday.
Q. Why India?
A. India has a niche market for automobile design. It offers a lot of scope of development for car companies and car design. Indians are very creative and intelligent. Automobile design needs to be reintroduced in India in such a way that tomorrow Indian companies are able to compete internationally with the world’s best. Trend-Marketing is what one looks for and going by that the Asian countries, they have to and will blossom in the near future.
Q. Who is your inspiration?
Mauro Forghieri is like God to me. I am very good friends with him. He also has worked on similar lines at Ferrari and Lamborghini. He is also the co-founder of the Oral Engineering Group. He has also been involved actively in the Moto GP with BMW.
Q. Would BEE Studio along with DYPDC Institute be conducting Internships for students anytime soon?
A. It is too early to speak much on that but once BEE Studios sets up completely in India with collaborations with other major car giants, we’ll certainly be looking forward to offering 2-month Internships to students.
Q. A message to the students of MIT.
A. I would say that, passion for Automobile Design can’t be imbibed or inculcated. It is a born quality. Although there are a lot of good students herein, failure to be the best does not mean one isn’t talented. It sets up the base or the tone for design on the wider scope.
By,
Saurav Bhattacharjee
Sub Edited by: Deeksha Awasthi
Manipal The Talk.Net 