Pinky Lai
 |
Pinky Lai | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 20, 1951 |
| Education | Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche (ISIA) of Rome |
| Occupation | Automotive designer |
| Years active | 1980–2014 |
| Employer(s) | Ford of Europe (1980–1983) BMW (1984–1988) Porsche (1989–2014) |
Pinky Lai (born 20 March 1951) is an automotive designer. During his tenure at Porsche AG from January 1989 until his retirement in 2014, he was chief designer responsible for the exterior designs of both the Porsche 987 Boxster and Cayman, as well as the 996 series of the Porsche 911.
Early life
In 1972 he moved to Rome, where he later gained a BA in Industrial Design at the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche. When studying he saw an advertisement from Ford of Germany for a car designer and in 1978 he ended up receiving a two-year full scholarship on transportation design at the RCA Royal College of Art in London.
In the Spring of 1980, he was declared the Winner of the John Ogier Memorial Design Bursary of the Royal Society of Arts.
Career
After his graduation with a MA from RCA in 1980,[1] he started working for Ford Werke in Cologne, Germany. In 1982/83 he went on a joint venture project to work in Ghia Studios (Italy) and Mazda in Japan where he worked on a specialty car program as a result of winning the internal competition. Overall he worked on the Sierra, Fiesta, Escort and Scorpio projects.
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After returning to Germany he joined BMW in 1984 as a senior designer. He won the Design of E36 program (the BMW 3 Series). In 1989, He was invited by the president of R&D of Porsche AG to join the design team (Porsche Styling) as studio chief. Since then, he has worked on all the models from the factory, from the Boxster to the Cayman including the revolutionary 996, the first major departure from Ferdinand Alexander "Butzi" Porsche's original design for the 911 in four decades.
Between 1992 and 1995, every Saturday, he taught Design Sketching at the Art Center College of Design in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland.
Since 2004, he was appointed the Chief Designer for all external projects at Style Porsche, handling all Transportation Design for clients from Japan, Korea, China and all over Europe. Projects ranging from High Performance motor bike design to design face-lifting of an over 300 meters long cruise liner, and very much everything in between that moves.
Car design awards
- 1997 911 CARRERA L´AUTOMOBILE PIU BELLA DEL MONDO, MILAN;
- 1998 911 C4 CARRERA L´AUTOMOBILE PIU BELLA DEL MONDO, MILAN;
- 1998 911 CARRERA DESIGN ZENTRUM NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN, GERMANY;
- 1998 911 CARRERA CHICAGO ATHENAEUM; MUSEUM OF ARCHITECTURE, USA;
- 2000 911 TURBO L´AUTOMOBILE PIU BELLA DEL MONDO, MILAN;
- 2000 911 TURBO INDUSTRIE FORUM DESIGN HANOVER, GERMANY;
- 2000 911 CARRERA(FL) AUTONIS(BERLIN), GERMANY;
- 2001 911 TURBO DESIGN ZENTRUM NORDRHEIN_WESTFALEN, GERMANY;
- 2001 911 CARRERA L´AUTOMOBILE PIU BELLA DEL MONDO, MILAN;
- 2002 911 TURBO GERMAN DESIGN COUNCIL;
- 2001 911 C4S CABRIOLET L´AUTOMOBILE PIU BELLA DEL MONDO, MILAN;
- DECEMBER 2015 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD BY HONG KONG DESIGN CENTRE.
Speech events
Invitations as key-note speaker and distinguished speaker:
- November 2012 WPO (Hong Kong chapter);
- July 2013 Moet Hennessy Gala-Dinner, Taipei, Taiwan;
- April 2014 Oklahoma State University, school of Architecture;
- October 2014 Hong Kong University; Entrepreneurs Organization; Hong Kong Polytechnic university; Stanford University Alumni; Columbia University Alumni; Hong Kong Chinese University;
- December 2015 The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.
Design consultancy (since 2013)
- 2013 For a major Chinese car manufacturers on Brand Creation/Accessment across the entire range of vehicles – from SUVs to limousines.
- Residential building design Concept consultancy project for a 7-Stars Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong.
References
- ^ "Drawn to the power: Hong Kong's Porsche designer Pinky Lai". Retrieved 2 May 2016.