LUIGI COLANI, THE GREAT PROVOCATEUR
German Industrial Designer Luigi Colani has a unique life story, and is responsible for some of the world's most unique designs, automotive, and more!
German industrial designer Luigi (born as Lutz) Colani demonstrated somewhat of an unconventional approach in his styling career which began in the 1950s and lasted up until his unfortunate passing in 2019 at the age of 91 years old. Luigi's vision and creations impressed other designers, automakers, and the public, however, due to the obscure nature behind most of his automotive ideas, they were often left out of the mainstream industrial design industry, and consequently, were never actually put into production. Colani designed seemingly everything during his career, ranging from cars and trucks, all the way to things such as cameras, ballpoint pens, kitchens, pianos, and much more.
Colani's automotive design studies, aerodynamic projects, concept cars, and prototypes always demonstrated ideas that appeared to be quite outlandish in comparison to the typical everyday road car. Colani's designs in every category would eventually go on to become some of the most interesting creations in the world, leaving many to sit and wonder just exactly how he came up with these ideas in the first place, and hoping that we could see some of these some of these unique features today in 2023.
Born in the year 1928, Luigi Colani gravitated towards design from a very young age. Colani's journey all began while studying sculpture at the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Berlin until the late 1940s, when he began doing research on aerodynamics at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris-Sorbonne University) in Paris, France. Colani found work very quickly after his time in school, traveling from Europe to America in the early 1950s to pursue work in industrial design American aerospace engineering corporation and defense contractor, McDonnel-Douglas, where he served as the Head of the New Materials project group until the year 1953, when his focus was shifted towards becoming one of the most revolutionary designers of all time.
Colani's first automotive design experience came to life after being scouted by French automaker Simca (Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile) back in Paris. It was here that Colani would help to develop and design the 1953 Simca Development Studio Fiberglass Coupe, the world's first European all plastic car body.
Following this, Colani became known for his round, organic shapes which he called 'biodynamic' styling. In the year 1954, Colani was awarded with the 'Golden Rose' international prize in Geneva, Switzerland at the Geneva Motor Show for his exterior design efforts on the Fiat 1100 TV. Colani would go on to develop a number of Fiat designs, and into the 1960s, made other design contributions towards companies such as Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen, BMW, and others. Colani's impressive advancements in design quickly led to the creation of his own car, the Colani GT in 1960, which later became available as a DIY (do it yourself) kit that could be built on the Volkswagen platform.
After Colani had quickly grown in both success and popularity, this enabled him to develop a studio in the year 1970 near Sassenberg, Germany, where he worked with a prominent design team in order to develop a series of successful projects for an array of respectable companies. One of the more notable projects was his design work on a 1970 Lamborghini Miura, which he called the 'Le Mans Concept'. This was a two-part hybrid car design which he constructed using the original parts from a Miura, including the entire rear suspension.
Throughout the 70s, Colani developed a strong relationship with the Japanese market. He traveled to Japan to study and conduct research in 1973, one year after his design work on the 1972 Eifelland Formula One Car. Seemingly involved in endless projects at once, in the year 1976, Colani veered away from cars slightly, and designed the world's first Wankel rotary-powered plastic sports airplane. Colani's numerous cars, trucks, aircraft, and other various studies were frequently displayed at exhibitions around the world during this time.
By the year 1982, Colani relocated entirely to Japan to become a professor in Tokyo. By the year 1984, after doing various design work for Japanese multinational corporation Canon Inc., he was subsequently voted as the number one industrial designer in Japan during the Otaru exhibition. Perhaps his most interesting endeavor came in 1989, Colani's AUTOMORROW '89 exhibition which showcased 12 of his designs around the world at places such as the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Ford headquarters in Michigan. Also in 1989 came the car pictured above, the one-off 1989 Ferrari Testa d'Oro, which was based on the underpinnings of a Testarossa model, and was developed to chase speed records down at the Bonneville Salt Flats, where it successfully won its class in the year 1991 hitting a top speed of 211mph. Through the rest of the 90s until the end of his career, Colani went on to develop some of the world's most interesting, and unique automotive designs and dream cars.
Colani was a very busy man, designing cars, trucks, and other vehicles for a wide array of different companies and people. While his automotive design work is at the forefront of this particular writing, it's important to note that there is seemingly nothing Colani didn't attempt to re-style, or create a design of his own for. From ballpoint pens, to piggy banks, cameras, and more, Colani attempted to place his signature styling on almost everything. He even went on to design a literal kitchen sink for German ceramics manufacturer, Villeroy & Boch. Everything Colani touched became clearly evident that it came from his studio, being that he truly developed a style of his very own.
Whether it's a pen, piano, lamp, car, bus, or maybe even an aircraft, if Colani designed it, it's bound to be memorable. While we may not be able to receive any new car designs from Colani, we can forever idolize the creations he has left us with over the years.
By Anthony Marchese
SOURCE:
https://www.hotcars.com/luigi-colani-mastermind-automotive-design/
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wenZ6GWcyqg
READ MORE:
https://www.designboom.com/design/luigi-colani-aerodynamic-race-cars/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRIHlHi79_o
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/luigi-colani
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/17/luigi-colani-biodynamic-design-pioneer-dies-aged-91/