Bertone hires former Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota
It's no news that business has been tough for Italy's most vaunted design studios and coachbuilders. But that hasn't stopped Bertone from hiring Jason Castriota as its new design director. Castriota has spent the past several years at arch-rival Pininfarina, where he worked on such projects as the Maserati Birdcage concept and GranTurismo, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, custom P4/5 and the Rolls-Royce Hyperion one-off, before leaving with the aim of starting his own studio. But as the Italian-American stylist says himself, Bertone "made me an offer I couldn't refuse".
Castriota, 34, will head a young design team at the resurgent Bertone, starting immediately. He'll have his work cut out for him bringing the stoic design house back to its feet following its brush with bankruptcy, and we'll be looking forward to seeing what he has in store for us.
[Source: CarDesignNews]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
scott 8:19AM (12/04/2008)
Bertone has penned some of the most beautiful cars ever, glad to hear Jason is going to be working for them.
My personal favorite car designed by Bertone: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Lamborghini_Miura_P400SV.jpg The miura
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Pickup trucks 2:10AM (1/02/2009)
very nice post.
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Mobius_1 8:43AM (12/04/2008)
No one does design like the Italians. Can't wait for him to start working.
Oh and I just found this: http://www.topgear.com/us/features/more/bertones-savior/
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John R 9:20AM (12/04/2008)
Hey! The dude from 'Prison Break' got himself a nice pink shirt and a tan. Swell.
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Mobius_1 10:17AM (12/04/2008)
You can't possibly expect to go to Panama and leave without a tan.
Andy 11:54AM (12/04/2008)
Can he design a car that looks like he does?....Nossa Senhora!
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Davin Black 2:53PM (12/04/2008)
While I respect his talent and contributions to automotive design, I can't help but think his talent is wasted. So he's moved to another prestigious designhouse to put off a couple of knock-offs for the uber-rich, with yet some more high-end performance vehicles. The only designs he's put out that have signaled a turnaround for an automaker were the GranTurismo and the Quattroporte (I could actually be wrong about his hand in designing the latter, and couldn't find any references stating otherwise, but I have a strong feeling he heavily influenced it)
Yet we still have to putz around with ugly hybrids, and all of a sudden it's okay for entry-level economy vehicles to be as upright and near-boxy as possible (see Smart, Nissan CUBE, Scions, etc). I understand that making every car look appealing defeats the purpose of differentiation, but come ON.
I mean, have you SEEN the Nissan Cube?! Do you think Castriota would've allow his name to be attached to something like that?
He should go somewhere that could actually challenge him; infusing his eye for aesthetic design into REAL automobiles as opposed to garage queens like the p4/5 or never-gonna-happens like the Birdcage. I'll bet a bank that half of the problems with accepting hybrids (at least in the 'States) would have been gone if Castriota had penned a good-looking Prius. From a pragmatic level, economy car makers probably have a helluva lot more money to spend making him happy than Bertone does.
/rant. I'm sure I won't remember any of this as I'm drooling over his next masterpiece. Congrats, Castriota.
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patrick 11:02PM (12/04/2008)
he's a hottie. I bet his designs will be sexy.
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dea911 11:58PM (12/04/2008)
i was thinking the same thing. i wasn't going to say anything...but since you already did
lol
Sarah McAlpine 1:56AM (12/08/2008)
Castriota is the best designer ever! His designs are better than his looks!
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