Gino Finizio

Gino (Biagio) Finizio (born March 10, 1941) is an Italian-born designer, architect, artist, author, professor and design manager based in Milan, Italy. He is best known for his contribution to design management – the integration of business culture and project culture; the meeting point of industrial design, strategic marketing, communication, training and Transportation design.

Finizio developed some innovative design-related disciplines. Teaching abroad, he found fertile soil for his new ideas and research. His academic career took him to campuses in Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Greece.

He wrote the books Design & Management: gestire l’idea (2002), Architecture & Mobility: tradition and innovation (2007).

Early life

Finizio’s Italian father, Federico Finizio, was a teacher of German language and Director of the Trade Chamber in Naples, Italy; his mother, Giuseppina Di Pristo was a housewife. Over the years, Gino Finizio works as Design Manager with architects and designers of international reputation (Carlo Scarpa, Achille Castiglioni, Michele De Lucchi, Alessandro Mendini, Jean Nouvel, Mario Bellini, Isao Hosoe, Antonio Citterio, Toshiyuki Kita, Richard Sapper, etc.) and he contacts research on business and product innovation mainly in the field of furniture and transportation design (3M, B&B Italia, BBB Bonacina, Bernini, Zerodisegno, Alfa Romeo, Fiat Auto, Elasis, Lancia CRF, Fincantieri, CNH Global).

In 1986, Finizio founded the Gino Finizio S.r.l., in Milan, where he works as design manager and designer for leading industrial companies, research centers and engineering firms (Alfa Romeo, Aprilia, B&B Italia, Fiat Auto, Fincantieri, IBM, Kartell among others).

Career

Finizio worked for several years (1963–1986) as marketing and design director for big names as 3M Italia, B&B Italia and Giorgetti Meda.

In 1986, he founds the Gino Finizio S.r.l., in Milan, where he continues his work as design manager and designer for leading industrial companies, research centers and engineering firms of international reputation (Alfa Romeo, Apple, Aprilia, B&B Italia, Ceccato, Fiat Auto, Fincantieri, Giorgetti, Hitachi Ltd., IBM, Kartell, Lancia, Minotti, Mondatori, Panasonic, Poliform, LG Electronics, Zambon, Montefibre).

In 1990, Finizio begins working as a corporate trainer by designing and coordinating the Master in Management of IPSOA and then follows major initiatives like conferences and seminars.

In the academic world, Finizio teaches Project Management focused to the design and product development, Design and Design management in prestigious European schools of Architecture, Engineering and Industrial Design.

In 1991, he designs and manages the first Master Degree 'Design and Management' at the Faculty of Architecture in University Iuav of Venice, then at Polytechnic University of Milan and Sapienza University of Rome.

In 2001, he becomes co-director of the Master 'Transportation Design & Management' at the Faculty of Design in Politecnico di Milano university.

Concept and Product Design

- Concept Car Telematica e Mobilità with Michele De Lucchi for Fiat AUTO (1997)
- Concept Car Trasformabilità e Personalizzazione with Isao Hosoe for Fiat AUTO (1997)
- Material Fiat Nuova 500 with Alessandro Mendini for Fiat AUTO (1997)
- Concept Car Mobility and Communication with Jean Nouvel for Fiat AUTO (1997)
- Project O.S.A. with Mario Bellini, Isao Hosoe and Alessandro Mendini for Fiat AUTO (1997)
- Concept car Auto Mobile Auto Immobile with Mario Bellini for Fiat Research Center (1998)
- Concept car Sport Utilities with Richard Sapper for Fiat Research Center (1998)
- Concept car New Small with Michele De Lucchi for Fiat Research Center (1998)
- Material Lab with Alessandro Mendini for Fiat Research Center (1998)
- Pulsantiera Multicolore with Richard Sapper for URMET (1998)
- Electrical telephone with Angelo Cortesi for URMET (1998)
- Videophone Atlantico, videophone Onda, telephone Micro with Michele De Lucchi for URMET (1998)
- Car Wash Aries with Isao Hosoe for CECCATO (2000)
- Concept car Sportività Evoluta with Antonio Citterio for Alfa Romeo CRF (2000)
- Concept Easy car with Toshiyuki Kita for Lancia CRF (2002)
- Construction ship cabin for Fincantieri
- Project Materials for 3M (2004)
- Illumination project for cruise ships for Fincantieri(2005)
- Handle Tool with Michele De Lucchi for COLOMBO DESIGN (2007)
- Handle Nautilus with Mario Bellini for COLOMBO DESIGN (2008)

Furniture Design

Over the years, Gino Finizio as Design Manager coordinates activities and research for the business and product innovation for many companies in the furniture industry:

- Achille Castiglioni Tric Trac, Alfieri, Quarck for BBB Bonacina
- De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi Popper, Popper Flex for BBB Bonacina
- Carlo Scarpa Pranzo (serie), Sedia 765, Tavolo 760 – 761 Poltroncina serie 1934, Zibaldone, Libreria 1935 for Bernini
- Massimo Vignelli Serie Forte for Bernini
- Mario Marenco Navona for Bernini
- Karl Overture Artù for Bernini
- Gianfranco Frattini Sesamo, Sedia 830-832 for Bernini
- Franco Poli Cangranda, Verona, Ulna, Radio, Locanda, Duse for Bernini
- Guido Canali Tavolo for Bernini
- Giulio Lazzotti Gregge for Bernini
- Gaetano Pesce Broadway, Luigi o “mi amate voi?” for Bernini
- Achille Castiglioni San Luca for Bernini
- Antonio Rossin PIana, Cemera da letto for Bernini
- Renaud Bozon Uba e Tube for Bernini
- Paolo Nava Arka for Bernini
- Carlo Viganò Cantona for Bernini
- De Pas, D'urbino, Lomazzi Octapus, Panels & Cellings for ZERODISEGNO
- Denis Santachiara Volare for ZERODOSEGNO
- Gaetano Pesce Umbrellachair for ZERODISEGNO
- Gae Aulenti Orsa Maggiore for ELAM
- De Pas, D’Urbino, Lomazzi Portoncino Portatutto for Lualdi
- Paolo Nava Colori or TESI
- Massimo Morozzi Bomb for TESI
- Giovanni Levanti Aliante for TESI
- Giovanni Offredi Novale for TESI

Academic Activity

As a lecturer, Finizio is committed to the Design management and management and transportation design in the Faculty of Architecture, engineering and Industrial design :
- Polytechnic University of Milan, Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Design
- Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture
- University of Naples Federico II, Faculty of Architecture, SSDI
- Second University of Naples, Faculty of Architecture
- University of Giessen, Industrial Design
- Escola Superior de Disseny Elisava, Pompeu Fabra University
- Royal College of Art (with support of FIAT Auto), Transportation Design
- The Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design

Works

Finizio's first work, ‘Design & Management: gestire l'idea’, illustrates a broad summary of the role of marketing in design and in industrial products and discusses the interdependence between design and business. Finizio invents the tree of design that expresses the philosophy where the design is the true value of the product. The idea takes shape with the help of technology and material to become an industrial product. In the book, Finizio theorizes the 4R - Resource, Revolution, Roi, R&D and the 4D - Design, Distribution, Development, and Decision. This is the alternative to the Anglo-Saxon tradition which sees design as a value added to the product.

The theme of latest book ‘Architecture & Mobility: Tradition and Innovation’, is dealing with the car as an object which changed the 19th-century city into a "metropolis" of suburbs and highways. In the book, various architects are asked to explore how urban planning, architecture, and design ideas can create a new design philosophy for the automobile as a sort of domestic moving space that interacts with the new urban environment. The book focuses on the relationship between the static city and "mobile architecture" of the car through the works of some of the most important contemporary international architects such as Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhass, Jean Nouvel, Massimiliano Fuksas, Renzo Piano, Antonio Citterio, Michele Del Lucchi and Alessandro Mendini. This is an urgent, exciting design mission that finally deals with how thinking about the urban car must co-evolve in profound new ways.

Honors

In 2005, the Faculty of architecture at the Second University of Naples conferred an Honorary degree upon Gino Finizio for his scientific contribution in the academic, economic and industrial spheres.

Bibliography

- Iconografia del Colore, Gino Finizio, Electa (1994)
- Creatività, Design e Management, Riccardo Dalisi, Gino Finizio, Electa (2000)
- Design & Management: gesture L'idea, Gino Finizio, Skira (2002)
- Architettura e mobilità: Conservazione ed evoluzione, Gino Finizio, Edizioni scientifiche Napoli (2003)
- The New Small. Il problem dimensionale, Gino Finizio, Edizioni scientifiche Napoli (2003)
- I.C.T. Design, Smau Industrial Design Aa.Vv., Edizioni Lydra (2003)
- Architecture & Mobility: Tradition and Innovation (2007)

External links

• Personal Website [1]
• Interview: A conversation with Gino Finizio [2]
• Interview: Gino Finizio arrives in France with Design Management [3]
• Skira: Architecture & Mobility [4]
• Article 1 in Four Wheels magazine [5]
• Article 2 in Four Wheels magazine [6]
• Article 3 in Four Wheels magazine [7]
• Article in Abitare magazine [8]
• Article Design & Management in Ottagono magazine [9]
• Article Future Design in Ottagono magazine [10]
• Article Qualificare La forma in Ottagono magazine [11]
• Article Progetto e Innovazione in Ottagono magazine [12]
• Article La riduzione del segno in Ottagono magazine [13]
• Article Professione Designer in Ottagono magazine [14]
• Article Mario Bellini e il Design in Ottagono magazine [15]