Delving Deeper

LIFE OF LUTZ AND LUIGI
Born Lutz Colani in 1928, industrial designer Luigi Colani (as he restyled himself in 1957) has enjoyed a decades-spanning career that is as nuanced as it is dynamic. He trained at the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1946 before dropping out and switching gears to study aerodynamics at L’E?cole Polytechnique and the Sorbonne in Paris in 1948. Even a superficial look at his oeuvre reveals the clear influence of this study on his aesthetic. In 1953 he emerged in California as the Head of New Materials at airplane manufacturer McDonnell Douglas, but his first notable success came from a car design for Fiat. Indeed, it was in car styling that he initially found his footing as a designer.