Serving as Senior Vice President of Design at Ferrari since 2010, the 60-year-old Italian has had an extraordinary journey. He developed a passion for automobiles at a young age and drew cars every day as a child. His path led him to study architecture in Florence, where he specialized in industrial design and pursued his goal of becoming a car designer.
Manzoni is the first head of design at Ferrari to have successfully built a successful design team within the company. Previously, design activities were organized in collaboration with external partners. Under his leadership, an inspiring start-up environment emerged. Today, his team consists of around 100 talented employees who work together to create distinctive designs. His exceptional work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the iF Design Award, the Good Design Award, and the Car Design Award. Thanks to Manzoni's visionary design language, Ferrari has become the most successful brand in the history of the equally prestigious Red Dot Award.
"When we work on the design of a new Ferrari, my team and I aren't just concerned with beauty," Manzoni explains in an interview with Welt am Sonntag. Rather, he strives for a deeper connection between technology and aesthetics, creating a meta-language in which stylistic elements, lines, and components blend harmoniously. He places great importance on balance, proportion, and timeless beauty that will endure for decades to come.
Manzoni and his design team strive to strike a perfect balance between tradition and the future. They carefully preserve Ferrari's heritage while simultaneously being innovative and groundbreaking. "A Ferrari must be timeless," says the designer. Only then will it retain its beauty and fascination for many years to come. For Manzoni, design means capturing the soul of a technical solution and giving it a form that offers the greatest possible artistic scope. It is a unique art that captures the essence of a vehicle, transforming it into a masterpiece on wheels.