Michelotti the man and Michelotti the designer of fabulous cars were a single soul.
His son Edgardo remembers that his father's 'craft' was so ingrained in his personality that it imposed on him a continuous passionate search for new technical and formal definitions, just as an artist would do in the interior elaboration of his visions. A tireless draughtsman, he had to capture on paper the rush of ideas that came to mind and, because of his ability to imagine a project plastically, spatially and dynamically, he modelled the scale models of his creations directly in plaster.
All this mastery had matured through experience in the field, which he began at the age of 15 in Giovanni Farina's factory in Turin. It was an unrepeatable world of bodywork; animated by highly skilled craftsmen with hammers and sheet metal, they were also a hothouse of ideas, of joint research into optimal solutions to the problems that "handmade" presented with each project; the common denominator was talent. 

GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021

When Giovanni Michelotti opened 'his' Studio-Laboratory in 1949, in a post-war Turin that still bore the marks of the bombings, he recreated that climate of intense collaboration, understanding and familiarity with his working group. With his charge of humanity and cordiality he made the best of the intellectual resources of his helpers. By choice, in order to live many experiences, Michelotti always remained free from contractual ties with a single industrial group, but put his pencil to the service of many internationally prestigious car manufacturers: Triumph, Bmw, Jaguar, Daf, Renault, Hino, Prince, Aston Martin, Opel; Lancia, Maserati, Fiat, Ferrari. His magnificent tempera-coloured drawings, then called 'figurini', were made by the best coachbuilders of the time, with whom Michelotti had a close working relationship and friendship: Farina, Allemano, Ghia, Canta, Balbo, Bertone and above all Vignale. 

GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021
GIOVANNI MICHELOTTI, 1921-2021

The 1950s and 1960s marked a change in bodywork style. Society expected something new from the past, and Michelotti anticipated this expectation.  Its aerodynamic lines, sleek shapes and rounded volumes, or aggressive racing cars, also communicated a precise visual message. Michelotti had a refined sense of perfection. His style is always recognisable for its elegance, for the refinement of its details; in many variations it gives each brand an identity, a physiognomy. To the customers who came to his studio-workshop for a particular model of bodywork, he would sketch out his idea directly on the window - from which one could admire the beautiful circle of Piedmontese mountains - intuiting and anticipating their aesthetic and practical needs.  
Graphically, Michelotti's works on paper are beautiful. The perspective with long vanishing lines, which strongly foreshortens the image, makes the cars spectacular and almost animated.  

The body of thousands of drawings is conserved by his son, Edgardo, in Torino, in the Michelotti Historical Archive; they were partly exhibited on the occasion of the exhibition at Mauto in Turin and on the occasion of the great exhibition at the DAF Museum in Eindhoven (Netherlands), which illustrates the entire production of the Dutch brand for which the Turin designer, already in the early sixties, studied and designed the Daf 44, a highly appreciated family car, produced from 1966 to 1974.