Michael Robinson

Sono un libero professionista

Bertone was the most famous, innovative, iconic, 100 year old Italian coachbuilder, with a team of 150 people. As a 16 year old in Seattle, Washington, I decided to become a car designer after seeing a radical Bertone design, so becoming the Design Director for the company of my childhood dreams was a very special accomplishment. Out of the many, often simultaneous car design competitions we participated in (max 10 projects at one time), my team won and developed 6 production cars and 6 concept cars. We were awarded Supplier of the Year by a Chinese client for having designed and engineered the highest selling car in their history. We also won the design and engineering of the high speed train for Europe, the Frecciarossa 1000, now in service in Italy. Bertone designed and built the prototype of the AgustaWestland Project Zero, a fully electric, fully autonomous twin, tilt rotor helicopter, which made its maiden flight in 2011 and won the coveted AHS Grover Bell Innovation Award in 2014. A brief list of projects created by Robinson and his creative team: Concept Cars - Alfa Romeo Pandion - 2010 (Geneva, Beijing, Pebble Beach, Poznan, Dubai) - Jaguar B99 - 2011 (Geneva, Doha) - Jaguar B99GT - 2011 (Geneva) - FAW 'X' SUV - 2011 (Shanghai) - Bertone Nuccio concept car - 2012 (Geneva, Beijing, Concorso Italiano) - BAIC C51X SUV concept car - 2012 (Beijing, Shanghai) - Aston Martin Jet 2+2 Shooting Break one off - 2013 (Geneva, Goodwood, St Petersburg)) Production Cars - FAW Besturn X80 SUV - 2013 - BAIC C50 sedan production car - 2014 - BAIC X55 SUV production car 2016 - FAW Besturn D50 sedan production car 2016 Non Automotive Projects: - AgustaWestland 'Project Zero' helicopter - 2013 Le Bourget Air Show - Winner of the AHS Groover Bell Most Innovative Helicopter Award 2014 - Trenitalia Frecciarossa 1000 - exterior and interior design - 400 km\h train - in service in Italy since 2015

The Fiat Design Center had around 80 employees and and my role was to help the company survive during one of the toughest recessions in recent history. My design team won competitions for the Fiat Idea and Punto interiors, and the 2006 Fiat Ducato exterior and interior, a sales champion in the delivery van segment still today, sold under Fiat, Peugeot, Citroèn brands, recently adding the Ram brand in the United States. A brief list of projects created by Robinson and his creative team: Production Cars - Fiat Idea interior - 2013 - Fiat Punto interior - 2014 - Fiat Ducato (exterior + interior) - Peugeot Boxer - Citroen Jumper 2006 - RAM ProMaster 2013

Lancia had a small team of 15 creatives and technicians, and my role was to rebuild the brand inside the Fiat Group. Lancia is an ex-innovative, 100 year old luxury car brand, with 12 world rally championships. My design team won competitions for the Lancia Lybra, Phedra, Thesis, and Ypsilon, plus the first two autonomous prototypes in Europe, the 1998 Lancia Dialogos, a luxury sedan with vis-à-vis seating, and the 2000 Lancia Nea, a hands free driving car all developed in-house, and tested on our test track. Rodolfo Gaffino and I won a direct competition with Mercedes for the personal limousine for Pope John Paul II, called the Lancia Giubilee (a long wheelbase Lancia Thesis prototype built by Bertone, 3 years before the Thesis was launched). I personally presented the vehicle to the Pope in the Vatican with the Fiat board. A brief list of projects created by Robinson and his creative team: Concept Cars: - Lancia Dialogos - 1998 (one of the first autonomous cars in Europe, with vis-a.vis seating) - Lancia Giubileo - 1999 (Popemobile for Pope John Paul II) - Lancia Nea - 2000 (a self-driving prototype, tested on the Fiat test track) Production Cars - Lancia Lybra - 1998-2005 - Lancia Phedra - 2002-2010 - Lancia Thesis - 2002-2009 - Lancia Ypsilon - 2003-2013

Interior designer – Advanced Design Chief – Interior Design Chief - Bravo/Brava/Marea Design Chief As Advanced Design Chief, I brought innovative development technology to Fiat, like the first CAS (Computer Aided Styling) systems in Europe (Alias, Wavefront, & Evans& Sutherland), all connected to the very first full size VR room in Europe back in 1988. I spent lots of time doing research at the MIT Media Lab in Boston Massachusetts. As Interior Design Chief, I designed the interiors for the Fiat Bravo/Brava, which won the European Car of the Year Award in 1995. I was also promoted as the first Product Design Chief (for Bravo/Brava/Marea) at the Fiat Design Center, following the exterior and interior design projects all the way to sales launch, I also designed the interiors of the 1996 Fiat Marea sedan and station wagon, following them as Product Design Chief as well. The success of these 4 car designs earned me my first Design Director position, at the Lancia Design Center, in 1996. A brief list of projects created by Robinson: - Fiat Bravo/Brava interiors - 1995-2001 - Fiat Marea sedan & station wagon interiors - 1996-2003

Carrozzeria Ghia was a famous Italian coachbuilder founded back in 1915, sold to Ford Motor Co in 1970, and unfortunately closed by Ford in 2001. During my 2 years there I designed the Vignale TSX-4 concept car which debuted at the 1984 Turin Auto Show, considered a forerunner to the first Ford Taurus station wagon. A brief list of projects created by Robinson: Concept Cars: Vignale TSX-4 - 1984 Torino Auto Show

My first design job in Turin Italy, where I worked for Aldo Sessano on Mitsubishi car design plus many other industrial design projects. Low pay, high experience. It was worth it as I was one of the first American car designers in Europe. Many more came over shortly after, like Chris Bangle, Peter Davis, etc.

While traveling around Europe with my college portfolio looking for my first professional design position, I was offered an internship at Volvo in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was an exciting experience comparing the smaller European studio at Volvo to the giant American studio at Ford. Jan Wilsgaard was the VP Design at the time and present Geely Executive VP Design, Peter Horbury was a contract designer there.

I won an internship contest at college and spent the summer of '78 at the Ford Design Center in Dearborn. I was proud to become part of such a giant design organization, but quickly discovered that I had arrived at the wrong time. Design VP Gene Bordinat was just retiring, and his replacement, Jack Telnak was just arriving. The cars we were designing were unbelievably obese and unjustifiable in my young, idealistic student mind. I decided that my future as a car designer was going to be in Turin, Italy and definitely not Detroit. I learned a lot for the many talented designers there, even though I disagreed with their design directions.