Beyond cars, Giugiaro designed camera bodies for Nikon, watch models for Seiko, office furniture for Okamura Corporation, the Navigation promenade of Porto Santo Stefano in 1983, the organ of the Cathedral of Lausanne (composed of about 7,000 pipes) in 2003, and a pasta shape called "Marille."
Giugiaro began his career as a stylist in 1959 at Fiat's in-house Special Vehicle Design department. From 1959 until 1965 he worked for Gruppo Bertone, a styling and design studio handling low-volume production of special-edition cars for various manufacturers. He moved to Ghia from 1965 through 1967, then briefly to Studi Italiani Realizzazione Prototipi (SIRP) in 1968.
In 1968 Giugiaro founded his own studio, Italdesign Giugiaro. In 2015 he co-founded GFG Style in Turin with his son Fabrizio Giugiaro.
Giugiaro's earliest designs — including the Alfa Romeo 105/115 Series Coupés — featured arched and curving shapes, similar to the De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo, and Maserati Ghibli. From the late 1960s his work became increasingly angular, transitioning through the gentle bends of the 1971 Maserati Bora and reaching the straight-lined "folded paper" aesthetic of the 1970s and 1980s — exemplified by the 1974 Volkswagen Golf Mk1, the 1976 Lotus Esprit S1, the 1978 BMW M1, and the 1981 DMC DeLorean. In the early 1990s he introduced more curvaceous forms, as seen in the Lamborghini Calà, Maserati Spyder, and Ferrari GG50.
His most commercially successful design is the Volkswagen Golf Mk1. The DMC DeLorean became widely known through its appearance in the film series Back to the Future.
In 1976 Giugiaro explored a taxi concept with the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), which led to the 1978 Lancia Megagamma concept commissioned by Fiat. The Megagamma is considered the "conceptual birth mother of the MPV/minivan movement," influencing the Nissan Prairie (1981), Fiat 500L (2011), Renault Espace, and Chrysler minivans.
Alfa Romeo: 2000 Sprint (1960), 2600 Sprint (1962), Giulia Sprint GT (1963), Canguro concept (1964), Alfasud (1972), Alfetta GT (1974), Alfasud Sprint (1976), Brera concept (2002, Compasso d'Oro winner), 159/159 SW (2004), Brera (2005).
BMW: 3200 CS (1961), BMW M1 (1977), Nazca C2 concept (1992).
Bugatti: ID 90 Concept (1990), EB 112 (1993), EB 118 (1998), EB 218 (1999).
De Tomaso: Mangusta (1966).
DMC: DeLorean (1981).
Ferrari: 250 GT Competition Berlinetta SWB Speciale Bertone (1960), 250 GT Berlinetta SWB Speciale Bertone (1962), Ferrari GG50 concept (2005).
Fiat: 850 Spider (1965), Panda (1980, Compasso d'Oro winner), Uno (1983), Punto (1993, Compasso d'Oro winner), Grande Punto (2005).
Hyundai: Pony Coupé concept (1974), Pony (1975), Stellar (1982), Excel (1985), Sonata (1988).
Iso Rivolta: Grifo (1963), Fidia (1967).
Lamborghini: Marco Polo concept (1982), Calà concept (1995).
Lancia: Megagamma concept (1978), Delta (1979), Thema (1984).
Lotus: Esprit (1976).
Maserati: 5000 GT (1961), Ghibli (1966), Bora (1971), Boomerang concept (1972), Merak (1972), Quattroporte (1976), 3200 GT (1998), Spyder (2001), Coupé (2002).
Porsche: Tapiro concept (1970).
SEAT: Ibiza (1984), Toledo (1991), Córdoba (1993), León (1998).
Subaru: Alcyone SVX (1991).
Toyota: Aristo (1991).
Volkswagen: Passat (1973), Scirocco (1974), Golf (1974), Jetta (1979).
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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