Pininfarina Appoints Fabio Filippini Design Director

One of the best-known names in the world of automotive design, Pininfarina, is getting ready for a change, after appointing a new design director. Starting the 1st of April, the company's design teams will be lead by Italian Fabio Filippini, who will come in and fill the place left vacant after the former head of design, Lowie Vermeersch, left in 2010.

Filippini will move to the design house from Renault Design, where he currently occupies the position of head of Interiors. For all intents and purposes, he's the man to blame for all the interiors fitted into the vehicles of the French group, be it Renault or Dacia.

Filippini has quite an extensive experience in the automotive world, one he will have to put to good use while at Pininfarina. He started working in the industry in 1985, when he joined the Open Design consultancy firm, he then moved to Japan and finally landed, in 1993, right in the back yard of the Renault Advanced Design Studio.

From there, he directed or helped create models like the Initiale concept (1995, Frankfurt Motor Show) or the more present in public conscience Megane and Scenic.

His new position will put him in charge of a team of 100 designers, the same that have managed to impress the journalists attending the Geneva Auto Show. There, the team with no leader for a few months managed to impress by snatching the 2010 Car Design Award for the Pininfarina Duettottanta.

"Our design team has earned this prize with the great passion it has put into a particularly ambitious project,” said Paolo Pininfarina, Pininfarina chairman.