Andrea Grosso

LEGENDARY INTERVIEW

Design Legends ("DL") had the distinct honour to interview legendary designer Andrea Grosso ("AG") for their original perspective and innovative approach to design as well as their creative lifestyle, we are very pleased to share our interview with our distinguished readers.

DL: Could you please tell us a bit about your design background and education?

AG : I came into contact with the design world initially by following the path that led my mentor to his first A'Design Award participation between 2018 and 2019. In that year, my mother passed away, so that was a moment of profound inner change for me. This fact and the strong closeness granted to me by my mentor and friend, Engineer Naccarella, opened a world to me by showing me his work partly to involve me and partly to encourage me. Inspired and animated by the desire to create, to give life to something new after this profound loss of mine, I began to show interest in this field and, first by helping engineer Naccarella through the use of Photoshop and then by learning how to use Rhinoceros and Keyshot, I began my training path to become an industrial designer. Basically I have no qualifications certified by institutions or training courses, which I would have liked to be able to do, but in my economic condition I could not afford it, and in this my teacher's kindness and expertise were for me the best school I could have had. To these notions, I combined my pre-active skills in automotive and electrical engineering acquired through the training course that certified me as an "Expert in Applied Transportation Telematics" between 2004/2005 and my subsequent work activities in the field of local public transportation.

DL: What motivates you to design in general, why did you become a designer?

AG : The ability to create, to bring something new and innovative to life, are the things that most inspired me to become a designer. I am an illustrator/mangaka as a hobby, and there is nothing better than bringing something artistic to life that takes on a realistic connotation for an art lover like me. So, without a shadow of a doubt, that is what motivates me more than anything else to pursue this path.

DL: Did you choose to become a designer, or you were forced to become one?

AG : It was my free choice.

DL: What do you design, what type of designs do you wish to design more of?

AG : Everything that moves on wheels and not. I love to design vehicles of all sorts, but I love creation in general, so I am always open to new challenges.

DL: What should young designers do to become a design legend like you?

AG : I'm not exactly a design legend, not yet at least, even if I won last year. However, it would be nice to become one someday, make the difference realizing something physically useful. Let's play a little game: in this response I will write to myself right now imagining that I am a legend in the future. A little time travel, hoping to be successful. To today's self I would say, "I told you so. You had to believe it with all your heart."

DL: What distinguishes between a good designer and a great designer?

AG : A mind free from constraints, capable of bowing to the changing market rules without affecting its personal identity.

DL: What makes a good design a really good design, how do you evaluate good design?

AG : Its exploitability. A design is good if it is useful, if it is excellent in the way of the function for which it is designed.

DL: What is the value of good design? Why should everyone invest in good design?

AG : Because there is always a way to take steps towards the future, towards innovation and renewal, to open the mind and make it dynamic, pushing to constant search and evolution.

DL: What would you design and who would you design for if you had the time?

AG : I would like to design the furniture of my apartment, to design the rearrangement and reworking of the small countryside for agricultural use that I own on the outskirts of Sanremo. They would be small things that would make me really happy.

DL: What is the dream project you haven’t yet had time to realize?

AG : As Enzo Ferrari said: "The best Ferrari is the one that still has to be built" and I am of the same opinion about my work.

DL: What is your secret recipe of success in design, what is your secret ingredient?

AG : Being able to make what other people like, and I don't like something that I can like I know, it sounds like a tongue twister, but maintaining one's identity in a project, despite not liking the idea, the shapes or whatever details don't particularly stimulate us, is a great challenge for those who live by inspiration, energy and in a flow of passion. Knowing how to "force" and "convince" oneself during a work process is never easy, but I through the hard work of imprinting that my mentor has done on me have become quite flexible as time goes by and I quickly "get used" to changes. This greatly affects each of my projects, and I am now able to incorporate something I like within them each time. The adaptability is the key.

DL: Who are some other design masters and legends you get inspired from?

AG : Engineer Marco Naccarella is my mentor. From him, I drew working methodologies, design approach, advice and inspiration, as well as a massive dose of aesthetic taste. Secondly, I could say that my most predominant sources of inspiration are Marcello Gandini, Nuccio Bertone and Giorgetto Giugiaro, as well as Mr. Horacio Pagani. I am a soul who belongs to the 1980s-90s, but the 1970s also arouse a lot of passion and love in me, so when you look at my design you know that somewhere, here and there, there will always be a fragment of the past reinterpreted in a futuristic or cyberpunk key that comes from that era (laughs).

DL: What are your favorite designs by other designers, why do you like them?

AG : I am in love with engineer Naccarella's Cerberus, for example. What I love most about that design is the old-new hybridization he managed to create in harmony with the overall style of his creation, incorporating retro and high-tech components at the same time, making it a unique design. There would be too many other designer's designs to mention, but I love the way they play with asymmetries, curves and materials, which I have studied, assimilated and reinterpreted in my own work.

DL: What is your greatest design, which aspects of that design makes you think it is great?

AG : Certainly at the moment my best project is represented by the Rascassa, that is the second big modular project I made. It has been quite some time since I completed the Nera Asimmetrica and I still have to publish other models of the Symmetry Project, but Rascassa Is now my priority project, pursued throughout the second half of the 2023 with the express purpose of participating in the 2023/2024 A'Design Award edition. What really makes the Rascassa so special is its modularity. A three-wheeler capable to be adjusted and optimized for every road use and customer, with a plethora of different customization options and a variable front wheelbase system to maximize and optimize the aerodynamic and fuel consumption. The Rascassa represents a step forward in my design philosophy, a challenge for myself to go even backwards in the past to take the best and bring those concepts into the future. This vehicle is a further step forward in my design style, with lines inspired by the F1 cars of the 50s simple but curvy and elegant, combined with new technologies and devices. The Rascassa is now my new business card.

DL: How could people improve themselves to be better designers, what did you do?

AG : Accepting criticism by trying, and it is a very difficult thing, to observe your work with the eyes of others. Understanding your mistakes, once you are convinced of the goodness of something it is never easy, but if you get on a table and you observe the thing from another point of view, you will discover new perspectives that will make you capable of "grasping the fleeting moment".

DL: If you hadn’t become a designer, what would you have done?

AG : Probably the necrophorus. It seems strange to say, given my professional background, but with the low supply of jobs in my area it would have been the option that would have provided me with the economic support I needed to survive. Many people underestimate this profession, however, just because you are dealing with death does not mean that the work necessarily has to be sad or unpleasant. You can give a lot of serenity to people in need under these circumstances, and it is one of the nicest parts of being able to work in contact with people who are going to celebrate their loved ones. This experience has not only enriched my person with a lot of humility, but it has also increased my level of inner sensitivity by allowing me to gain a broader spectrum view on human feelings, something essential, on a psychological level, to be able to pproject and produce a design capable of "touching" and "transmitting" emotions in the beholder. Every experience is teaching and schooling, treasuring and assimilating it is the secret to being better and more dynamic designers.

DL: How do you define design, what is design for you?

AG : The design is free clay, we the hand to shape it.

DL: Who helped you to reach these heights, who was your biggest supporter?

AG : Engineer Naccarella has been my heart and soul from the earliest moments. From the first poorly designed bolt, to the first ugly rim and up to my current creations.

DL: What helped you to become a great designer?

AG : I still don't consider myself a great designer, but I'm growing. But let's play the game from before and pretend I am (laughs). I think the criticism and the strength that engineer Naccarella gave me was crucial to be able to believe in my designs and to carry them out.

DL: What were the obstacles you faced before becoming a design master?

AG : Still, I don't feel that I can call myself a master of design, because I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvement, but following the same guideline of the hypothetical concept, I can say that the most significant obstacles I have encountered have definitely been studying and having to force myself to follow certain trends by abandoning (in part) my personal artistic choices. I know that sooner or later I will be able to make a project entirely my own, without any market influence, dictate the trend or try, but for the time being I still have to grow, learn and strive to improve as much as I can to become a master in my near future.

DL: How do you think designers should present their work?

AG : With professionalism and precision. With commitment and courage. I, for one, submitted my work to a competition despite not having state-of-the-art equipment to be able to execute it at the highest level, yet I believe in my project, its ideas and solutions, and I believe that beyond these qualities, knowing the basic scenario, these concepts can be an important evaluation tool for those submitting to a competition, at least to determine not its quality, but undoubtedly its potential.

DL: What’s your next design project, what should we expect from you in future?

AG : After presenting the ANGROS Formula T01 Rascassa at the A'Design Award 2023/2024 surely I plan to develop what I have been putting into work in progress during the past year and the beginning of this year. I have in the pipeline a hybrid hypercar I have done following the World Endurance Championship principles. I am planning to pursue also the ANGROS Formula S03 project called "Quadriturbo" which reworks the structural concept of the incredible Cizeta V16T and reinterprets it in a modern and current key, but I will not say more about that, wait and see. I plan to amaze even more than with the Nera Asimmetrica or the Rascassa with this new Hypercar of mine. Also, finally, I have an incredible collaboration project in the works with my mentor, Engineer Naccarella, but I will not say anything about that, wait and see.

DL: What’s your ultimate goal as a designer?

AG : Make a truly salable product capable of entering in production. Of course, once I reach such an objective I would certainly not have to stop there, I would always put new goals to never stop my growth.

DL: What people expect from an esteemed designer such as yourself?

AG : Anything. People expect something from those who can give them certainty, and I, not yet known, have only dreams to offer. Beware though, I have the perfect recipe to make those dreams come true and this not everyone possesses, it is called: Passion.

DL: How does design help create a better society?

AG : A responsible and aware design is the best way to create a better society, inspiring others to do better and pursue the path of innovation together with economic, environmental and functional sustainability. No category must remain excluded and this is the best way, in my opinion, to make users of a good design aware of the society in which we live and in which we could one day live. Ours is a great responsibility.

DL: What are you currently working on that you are especially excited about?

AG : At this very moment I am particularly excited about my latest finished project, the Rascassa.

DL: Which design projects gave you the most satisfaction, why?

AG : Everyone to a certain extent gave me satisfaction and these are the most diverse. I have always taken useful teachings both from my small and large successes and from my small and serious mistakes, because this has allowed me to learn, to speed up my creative process and to obtain greater familiarity and working methodology by increasingly and refining my skills.

DL: What would you like to see changed in design industry in the coming years?

AG : I would like to see less restrictions from the point of view of trends. It is a little utopian to think of it, I realize it perfectly, but I am an incurable dreamer and unfortunately you will have to make the callus about it (laughs). I firmly believe that the best works are those expressed in the full freedom to interpret a theme, whatever it is. Freedom means making the mind free to get out of the usual predetermined schemes from the common mentality, by the laziness of the thought of the mass, going to touch unexplored territories and uncommon shapes that can communicate emotions and find effective usefulness in those who observe them and must take advantage of it I believe it with all my strength.

DL: Where do you think the design field is headed next?

AG : From what I have seen in recent years, a certain annoying ideological conformism has been created in my eyes, a sort of symmetrical uniformism that leads many designers to design all the same things. Don't misunderstand me, everyone can do what they wants, but I believe that the best works are the fruit of the passion of the individual, of what the artist puts in its work. If everyone had to design scooters forever, wouldn't it be a little boring? Who knows, maybe one day I would also could project a scooter, but I would do it so different from the usual that it would become literally unrecognizable from the others.

DL: How long does it take you to finalize a design project?

AG : It depends on the type of project we are talking about and the complexity of it. There cannot be a standardized timing for all projects, it's a variable answer from project to project.

DL: When you have a new design project, where do you start?

AG : The project is always born by adding two basic ideas, two concepts. Then they are developed by a brainstorming process by adding and evaluating all the possible functionalities and services that can offer. Then we move on to the conceptualization phase, studying shapes, making pencil sketches and modeling a rough shape in 3D until reaching a overall shape that responds to the dynamics of the project, then we proceed to detail and structure the entire project adapting it to the requests and its technical specifications.

DL: What is your life motto as a designer?

AG : "Dynamic like water, but solid as granite".

DL: Do you think design sets the trends or trends set the designs?

AG : I think both of them, although sadly I think it has been the second case for a few years now. It is all part, however, of a continuous cycle of events destined to repeat itself. One day a designer will come out with a brilliant idea that will revolutionize a certain sector and dictate what will be the trend of the moment and everyone will follow him by imitating him. It is already happening and all this is destined to repeat itself cyclically.

DL: What is the role of technology when you design?

AG : Technology is an integral part of all my projects, as much the one that I exploit to design as much the one that I create or exploit by designing. Of course, one day I could decide to create objects that do not use any type of multimedia or electronics, but for the moment I still prefer to make my bones in my reference field, my future has not yet been written, so I will never be afraid of the door to the sacred world of opportunities.

DL: What kind of design software and equipment do you use in your work?

AG : I currently have equipment that is certainly more performing than 8 months ago, I own a Ryzen 5700 X with 32 GB of ram and the fastest SSD on the market, which certainly allowed me to speed up and greatly improve my production process and the quality of my projects. One of the components that I am most proud of and which I would never be able to part with now is my monitor. It's really excellent, a 27 inch Samsung Space Monitor, purchased specifically to work with Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint for my passion as an illustrator, which however has proved to be essential in the realization of my 3D graphics projects. Unfortunately my video card is currently giving me quite a few problems, it is a Radeon RX 570 with 8 GB of RAM but I hope to replace it as soon as possible with a more updated and performing counterpart. The software I use is Rhinoceros 7 and Keyshot 11, which I use alongside Photoshop CC and Clip Studio Paint to make graphic changes on the final images in post production.

DL: What is the role of the color, materials and ambient in design?

AG : They have a fundamental importance in the realization of a good design. The visual impact is the first thing that affects those who observe and choose the right materials, the right colors and recreate the right environment is the first thing after the correct 3D modeling.

DL: What do you wish people to ask about your design?

AG : Everything. I love to talk about my projects, of all their aspects. There are also particularly fun anecdotes that can sometimes bring a little liveliness to these often serious and professional areas. Have you ever mounted an upside-down an automatic transmission? I did it without realizing it! I still have the photo of that magnificent disaster that i made that was so unique that I wanted to immortalize it (laughs).

DL: When you see a new great design or product what comes into your mind?

AG : The future.

DL: Who is your ideal design partner? Do you believe in co-design?

AG : Eng. Naccarella. If I believe in Co-Design? I practice it! So I would say yes. Of course, it is never easy to combine several styles and ideologies, he is much more retro-style than me, for example, but I am also a vintage soul, only a few decades after the reference area of him (laughs). Despite this, the synergy that we find in ideas, solutions and work is so unique that sometimes one of the two of us thinks one thing and the other says it. It is a rare example of synergy of the soul you know, something that only the incurable romantic like us can have the bitter sweet privilege of being able to experiment, with all its pros and cons.

DL: Which people you interacted had the most influence on your design?

AG : My mentor has shaped me in every aspect of my professional and artistic growth. Despite this, he left that my inspiration and my style would grow independently leaving me full creative freedom of choice, while putting myself stakes here and there like every gruff master with his pupils who love the most (laughs). I thank every moment of the patience and the will with he has followed every little great success and failure of mine, spending for me words that I have not even felt from my father's mouth. He is a piece of my family, an older brother who supported me and supports me in the dark periods of my life. He will never thank him enough for allowing me to spread my wings in this wonderful world made of freedom and dreams that can be realized thanks to the strength of our passion.

DL: Which books you read had the most effect on your design?

AG : The Art of War by Sun Tzu is the first title that comes to mind; As well as the famous Go Rin no Sho of the famous Miyamoto Musashi together with the contemporary reinterpretation of the Hagakure by Yukio Mishima. These three books are rare pearls in my collection and although the Art of War is a text made famous in the economic and corporate field, together with the other two volumes it had a strong influence for me in my general approach to work. The technique, the "tactic" used to face a project, follow the "flow" of one's emotions to chapter it as possible by letting itself be dragged by what is important at that moment, the essential to be taken. This makes my design what it is, a constant and strong search for perfection together with a powerful sensory and emotional transport, an essential factor for me to be able to extract maximum potential from all my work session.

DL: How did you develop your skills as a master designer?

AG : Studying, trying and failing. Only by failures there is the answer that let be you closer to perfection. Only by making mistakes you can analyze, understand and then improve. I believe in the school of experience, in the virtue of the commitment and force generated by the successes, children of previous failures. There is no bigger emotion of succeeding in something in which it previously failed to raise morality, fill the heart and prepare for the next arduous challenges.

DL: Irrelative of time and space, who you would want to meet, talk and discuss with?

AG : I think I would like to be able to talk to Mr. Enzo Ferrari. You know, sitting together on a simple wooden table, outside of a small bar in the suburbs in the 1950s drinking a good glass of red wine together, looking at the road and talking about the passion that made Ferrari the most famous car manufacturer in the world and maybe ask him for advice and opinions on my works.

DL: How do you feel about all the awards and recognition you had, is it hard to be famous?

AG : I certainly think fame is something that on the one side gives me gratify but on the other it rests me. Having more and more people who affect your privacy is not something that I particularly like, but certainly having fame means having prestige and this is certainly something I want to get.

DL: What is your favorite color, place, food, season, thing and brand?

AG : My favorite color is black, in all its nuances, I love how it makes shapes and structures stand out, wrapping them in the absence of color, enhancing those smallest details thanks to some stratagem or some metallic paint that gives those shades that reverberate thanks to the games of lights. My favorite place is the top of the old port of Sanremo. It is a place that is recurring in my childhood as in my adolescence, but also in adulthood as a place of deep reflection alone. The calm that is obtained by listening to the gurgling of the waves of the sea on the rocks is something that fills the soul and empties the mind, giving the peace of the soul. My favorite food is certainly salty pistachios. My favorite season is autumn. My favorite thing coffee, I didn't put it in food but I say it the same. And I have no brand I prefer. I don't like making preferences and I try to be as objective as possible in evaluating the quality and my interest in something.

DL: Please tell us a little memoir, a funny thing you had experienced as a designer?

AG : Do you know that episode that I mentioned some questions before? Here you are. I was really very tired, I had just finished studying the functioning of an automatic bus transmission and I was so tired by the lack of sleep that my hands moved on the keyboard alone. I moved the grouped parts, I moved them , centered them and aligning them with each other to get the final drive train assembled to calculate the encumbrance of the masses... And finally I coupled the transmission to the flange that I had created as a dummy to have the total sizing of the masses of the Heroybus engine compartment. At that point, however, I looked at the thing that came out by different angles, as amazed as bewildered and I wondered: “But what is that hump that is above the transmission!?” It was the oil cup of the transmission that I had mounted on the contrary...!!! (laughs) Sometimes being a designer and not sleeping the right number of hours to try to respect the delivery times or the stages of a project makes bad jokes, Please, you don't do it! (laughs)

DL: What makes your day great as a designer, how do you motivate yourself?

AG : See what I create to come to life. Making steps forward, seeing that work progresses and does it in the right direction. Noting by myself or through positive constructive criticisms that my work proceeds well is the best thing to motivate my day.

DL: When you were a little child, was it obvious that you would become a great designer?

AG : No, not at all! (laughs) I had such a fragmented school path and a set of passions so varied in my life that I really could stay here to talk to you for whole hours. You know, I come from a very humble family environment. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a hairdresser before dedicating herself completely to the family under the constriction of my father. Both my parents came from very, very poor families, so they did not complete their studies paths, gaining only the elementary license, without completing middle schools, which however both faced one up to the first and the other until the second year. For my part I have been grown in an atmosphere of strong ignorance for which everything I assimilated and every concept that I did derived from my education and from the environments in which I grew up, while managing to have obtained the high school diploma and having specialized subsequently to obtain a fair competence. I would never have thought to become a designer one day, but you can never say in life, sometimes certain doors will open in front you and you don't even notice them, in this case someone held out an hand to me and I grabbed it with all my forces.

DL: What do you think about future; what do you see will happen in thousand years from now?

AG : Realistically speaking I have no idea. I don't have a crystal sphere. However, I can think, as a sci-fi lover as i am, that humanity will finally understand the enormous damage that our planet is suffering from the continuous wars and senseless and selfish policies that the politicians of almost all the nations of the world continue to demonstrate and pursue. I hope for humanity a prosperous future, where the whole society will be more inclusive, careful and vigilant towards others, the weakest and the cateegories at risk, as well as for the environment. I would like to think that the man will build self-sufficient space colonies and explore the cosmos, but for the moment I leave the Sides and Mobile Suits to Gundam and to my dreams and why not, to the 3D world of Rhinoceros.

DL: Please tell us anything you wish your fans to know about you, your design and anything else?

AG : Each of mine design has its own soul, a beating heart that derives from a concept, an emotion or a memory. Each project that I realize or to in wich I take part in have a unique romanticism, different from project to project, in which I but a fragment of me in something that characterizes it. This makes my designs children of passion, efforts and ingenuity deriving from something real and tangible, something that can certainly exudate from the lines, from the shots and from the strength with i want my work to emerge from the screen to become reality in front of the eyes of those who look at it. I thank anyone who has had the heart to dwell in front of my job, hoping that my passion and my love for design has reached them.