Tokyo, Japan - Forget about conservative, play-it-safe designs on outdated platforms from Mitsubishi from now on. It’s about to get a serious to get a serious kick up the tailpipe with the appointment of 45-year-old Milanese Alessandro Dambrosio as Executive Design Director, in charge of at three design studios: Okazaki and Tokyo in Japan, and Frankfurt in Germany.
Dambrosio brings with him an impressive resume - his first job was as an intern at Alfa Romeo, but after a stint at Novadesign styling new models for Sang Yang Motorcycles, he was hired as an exterior designer at Centro Stile Lancia in 2000. Within two years, however, he was promoted to senior exterior designer at Alfa Romeo, where he stayed for almost eight years, creating the superb 159, the Giulietta and the Mito.
While at Alfa Romeo Dambrosio was responsible for the superb 159. File photo: Alfa Romeo
In 2007 he was appointed chief designer at Maserati, where he was responsible for the Grancabrio and the MC Concept, before moving to the Volkswagen Group as head of the Audi Concept Design Studio in Munich.
There he worked on an astonishing variety of projects, including the Bentley Bentayga, the current Audi A4 and A5, the Concept Audi TT Sportback, the Lamborghini Egoista Concept, the Ducati Bobber (winner of Best Concept Bike at Villa d’Este 2017) and even the Audi ‘Lunar Quattro’ robot vehicle, all the while moonlighting for Leica with several award-winning camera designs.
Now that their design rapprochement has made new Renault-Nissan platforms available to the Mitsubishi studios, expect to see a series of adventurous concepts and distinctive new models from Mitsubishi, all bearing the unmistakable Dambrosio stamp.
Allesandro Dambrosio with two of his favourite designs - the Lamborghini Egoista and an unnamed Audi concept that never saw the light of day. Picture: Seestrasse 7