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The greatest Italian designer you’ve never heard of
What do a plastic table clock, the stylish suspended lamp you wanted for your flat, and your Dad’s old Fiat 127 have in common?
It’s the 26th of May, 1969.
A Fiat 500 is cruising on the “A4” motorway, a few kilometers from Turin. At the wheel, there’s 30-year-old Italian designer Pio Manzoni, better known as Pio Manzù. That day, he’s due to attend an important presentation, in which Fiat’s upper management will review his design for the “127” project. Project number “127” was of crucial importance to Fiat, as was to finally bring its superminis into the modern age, with its front-wheel-drive configuration.
Pio’s first project for Fiat proved that Giacosa’s trust wasn’t misplaced.
As Dante Giacosa (head of Fiat’s product development at the time) would later recall in his memoir, Pio Manzù enjoyed designing simple, honest, and affordable cars for the wider public. Despite his relatively young age (he was born in 1939), Pio had already left his mark in product design, thanks to masterpieces like the “Chronotime” clock and the “Parentesi” lamp, and many more that can still be bought today.
