Red Dot: Design Team of the Year 2019 Goes to Flavio Manzoni and the Ferrari Design Team

This year’s Red Dot: Design Team of the Year goes to Flavio Manzoni and the Ferrari Design Team. The head of design and his crew will be recognized as part of the Red Dot Award: Product Design award ceremony on July 8, 2019.  

Between 2015 and 2019, the models designed by Flavio Manzoni and the Ferrari Design Team have won a total of 14 distinctions in the Red Dot Award: Product Design. The jury bestowed the highest distinction in the competition, the Red Dot: Best of the Best, on the designers five times in a row, for the FXX-K, 488 GTB, J50, Portofino and Monza SP1 models. This accolade is reportedly the first of its kind in the history of the award, with no other automobile manufacturer attaining this, according to the Red Dot Award. 

“The Red Dot: Design Team of the Year 2019 has not only won over our respected jury, but also me personally,”  says Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award. “Ferrari understands better than any other company how to make luxury sports cars objects of desire.

“The designers use state-of-the-art technology and an emotionally appealing language of form to create an incomparable driving and brand experience, and they have been doing this for years. I take my hat off to Flavio Manzoni and the entire design team and wish to congratulate the laureates most sincerely on this pioneering achievement,” says Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award. 

“The Ferrari Design Team and I are very proud to receive such a prestigious award,” says Manzoni. “Red Dot has accompanied the history of design and has helped to promote its evolution by establishing ever higher terms of comparison, pursuing the constant improvement of aesthetic and technological qualities of the universe of objects in daily use. As designers, this accolade encourages all the members of the Ferrari Design Team to draw new creative stimulation, which fuels our passion for our work.”

The Ferrari Design Team has its creative center in the new Centro Stile building in Maranello, Italy. When Manzoni was named senior vice president of Design at Ferrari in 2010, he set out to establish a structured dedicated in-house team to develop the future design concepts for the Ferrari brand.

As the head of design, he has always placed emphasis on modeling. This led to the development of scale models by digitally controlled milling machines subsequently formed by experienced designers before adding the finishing touches by hand.

“Every Ferrari stands for innovation, beauty and driving thrill,” says Manzoni, adding that “every model has to embody the essence of the brand.”

Award Ceremony and Exhibition Opening 

As part of the Red Dot Gala on July 8, Manzoni and the Ferrari Design Team will receive the “Radius” challenge cup and be officially announced as Red Dot: Design Team of the Year 2019. The pioneers in sports car design will join the ranks of firms such as Apple, Grohe, Bosch, Blackmagic, Canyon and Phoenix Design to enter the Hall of Fame of international design. 

Four days later there will be an opening of a special exhibition designed by Ferrari that reflects the design team’s achievements. It will be on display in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen alongside the “Design on Stage 2019” and “Milestones in Contemporary Design 2019” exhibitions, which feature all of the winning products in the Red Dot Award: Product Design. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.