TADtalks – 21st April 2021 – Lowie Vermeersch
TADtalks | car design inspiring ideas
Lowie Vermeersch | Designing mobility for a changing society
21st April 2021 – 11:00 AM (CEST)
Politecnico di Milano, Online Campus
The Master in Transportation & Automobile Design, the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano and Poli.Design organize TADtalks | car design inspiring ideas, a series of talks on transportation design topic.
The next speech will be held by Lowie Vermeersch, Founder & Creative Director Granstudio in Turin.
The proposed topic will be “Designing mobility for a changing society”.
Granstudio combines a deep car design expertise with a broader understanding of the future of mobility. This unique combination allows his team to design mobility means that fit successfully in that mobile future.
Today Granstudio is an internationally recognised mobility design studio with a team of 50 designers, engineers and mobility experts that works on a wide variety of projects for renowned international clients as a well as working on a wide range of mobility projects, including the development of new mobility solutions at an urban scale.
For this meeting 15 points Design Explorer 2020-2021 will be released.
Born in Kortrijk (Belgium) on May 9, 1974, Lowie Vermeersch grew up in the Flanders and is part of the 3rd generation of a prominent artistic family.
His passion for design induced him to start in 1992 his studies in Industrial Design Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. During these studies he enriched his design experience through internships at various automotive companies as well as of working as a freelance designer for several design studios. During his study Lowie designed the first Autonomous Driving vehicle (Rotterdam Rivium).
In 1997, urged by his passion for transportation design he obtained an internship at Pininfarina during which he developed his graduation project. With this project – the research and design of a car for 2012- he graduated in 1998 as “Master of Science in Industrial Design Engineering” with first class honours. Later he was Awarded ‘Best Graduate Industrial Design Engineering’ of the year 1997-1998.
Immediately after his graduation he joined Pininfarina, where he contributed to the design of many successful cars and prototypes such as Metrocubo (interior) and Ford Start (interior). In particular he was responsible for both the concept design and styling of the exterior and interior of Pininfarina Nido safety concept, presented at the 2004 Paris Motor Show and recently awarded with the prestigious ‘Compasso d’Oro’ Award.
In July 2005 he was promoted to the role of Chief Designer leading one of the three Pininfarina design teams and their relative design projects. Meanwhile he co-operated with the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Turin where he set up a Masters Degree for Mobility Design. On August 1, 2007 he was appointed Design Director of Pininfarina. His day to day responsibilities included the direction of the design department and of all the Pininfarina automotive design activities for the various customers.
In October 2010 the Belgian TV Canvas dedicated a documentary to his story and professional achievements and he appeared in several TV programs. CAR Magazine ranked him nr. 12 in the list of ‘ Worlds 25 Most Influential Car Designers’.
In 2011 he resigned from his position in order to found Granstudio in Turin, a new creative agency that allows him to expand his deep experience in automotive design into the field of mobility.
