Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Surprise meSurprise meSubscribe
Encyclopedia

Giorgetto Giugiaro

Italian automobile designer (born 1938)

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
6 min read
Source updated September 13, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Giorgetto Giugiaro (Italian pronunciation: [dʒorˈdʒetto dʒuˈdʒaːro]; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. He was awarded the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award six times, including a lifetime achievement recognition in 1984.

In addition to cars, Giugiaro designed camera bodies for Nikon, the Navigation promenade of Porto Santo Stefano, in 1983, the organ of the Cathedral of Lausanne (composed of about 7000 pipes) in 2003, and developed a new pasta shape, "Marille". He also designed several watch models for Seiko, mainly racing chronographs, as well as office furniture for Okamura Corporation.

01Influence on design

Giugiaro's earliest cars, such as the Alfa Romeo 105/115 Series Coupés, often featured arched and curving shapes, similar to those found in the De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo, and Maserati Ghibli.

From the late 1960s, Giugiaro's designs became increasingly angular, transitioning via the gentle bends of the 1971 Maserati Bora, and culminating in the straight-lined, "folded paper" era of the 1970s and 1980s designs such as the 1974 first VW Golf, the 1976 Lotus Esprit S1, 1978 BMW M1, and the 1981 DMC DeLorean. During the early 1990s, he adapted to the era and introduced more curvaceous designs, exemplified by the Lamborghini Calà, Maserati Spyder, and Ferrari GG50.

Giugiaro is widely known for the DMC DeLorean, prominently featured in the Hollywood movie series Back to the Future. His most commercially successful design is the Volkswagen Golf Mk1.

In 1976, Giugiaro explored a taxi concept with the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), which became the 1978 Lancia Megagamma concept. Fiat had commissioned the 1978 concept from Italdesign, asking for a 4-meter length, high roof, high h-point, multi-functional, monospace design , but ultimately decided the ides was too risky for production. In retrospect, the Megagamma was more influential than successful in its own right. It is considered the "conceptual birth mother of the MPV/minivan movement." It influenced the design of such mini/compact MPVs as the Nissan Prairie (1981) and Fiat 500L (2011), as well as larger MPVs, including the Renault Espace and Chrysler minivans.

Career and studios

Giugiaro began his career as a stylist in 1959 at the in-house Special Vehicle Design department of Italy's major carmaker, Fiat.

From 1959 until 1965, he worked in a similar capacity for Gruppo Bertone, a company exclusively working for other carmakers, primarily as a styling and design studio, similar to a building architecture firm, as well as handling low volume production of special edition cars for different carmakers. Although Bertone and Italy's other car and industrial design studios would create design proposals for other car brands on their own initiative, and sometimes even show concept cars under their own name, they never combined their design and production work for other carmakers with independent car manufacturing in their own right and under their own brand name, like Lotus in the UK, or Porsche in Germany.

In 1965, Giugiaro switched to working for Ghia, another of Italy's car design studios, through 1967. This experience was followed by a brief stint at Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi (SIRP) in 1968, after which

In 1968, Giugiaro established his own studio, Italdesign Giugiaro. In 2015, he founded the design studio GFG Style in Turin with his son, Fabrizio Giugiaro, where he works to the present day.

Giugiaro (left) and a Bertone employee with a wooden model of the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT
Giugiaro (left) and a Bertone employee with a wooden model of the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT
1960 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB Speciale designed at Bertone at age 21
1960 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB Speciale designed at Bertone at age 21
Volkswagen Golf Mk1
Volkswagen Golf Mk1
Lancia Delta Mk 1, in "folded paper" style
Lancia Delta Mk 1, in "folded paper" style

02Designs

Automobiles

Cameras

Firearms

Motorcycles

Other

Maserati Ghibli
Maserati Ghibli
Iso Grifo
Iso Grifo
DMC DeLorean
DMC DeLorean
De Tomaso Mangusta
De Tomaso Mangusta
Watch videos about Giorgetto GiugiaroExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Giorgetto Giugiaro”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.