Aldo Brovarone

Aldo Brovarone was born on June 24, 1926, in Vigliano Biellese, Italy, and passed away on October 12, 2020, in Torino. His career as a designer began after a series of detours in his early life, which was influenced by the textile industry in the Biella region. His family initially steered him toward technical-commercial studies, but he didn’t complete this path due to the war and his own disinterest in that type of profession. After World War II, he worked briefly as a designer for a refrigerator company, but his true passion lay in automobiles.

Brovarone’s breakthrough came when he showed some of his designs to Piero Dusio, who was about to leave for Argentina where he had founded Autoar, the first car manufacturer in the country. Dusio was impressed, and Brovarone was quickly hired and sent to South America. His first assignment was to create a brochure for Autoar’s 1950 model, even though the car’s design had yet to be developed. He went on to design the bodies for the three Autoar models produced that year, based on his initial concept.

In early 1953, Brovarone was called back to Italy by Dusio to work as a stylist for Cisitalia. However, the company was facing financial collapse and shut down later that year. Despite his young age, Brovarone’s designs had caught the attention of Pininfarina, who hired him in 1954. He worked at Pininfarina for 35 years, eventually becoming the head of the design office in 1974. During his time there, he was responsible for many designs, most notably the Ferrari Dino 246 GT/GTS, widely considered one of the most elegant cars ever made. He also collaborated on the iconic Alfa Romeo “Duetto” with Franco Martinengo and Battista Farina, a model that remained in production for nearly three decades.

In 1998, Brovarone took on some freelance projects for the Stola Group, including the design of the Fiat Dedica, the Abarth Monotipo 98, and the S82. His friendship with Alfredo Stola, which developed after the founding of Studiotorino, led to two Porsche redesigns in 2005, including the Ruf RK Spyder and its coupe version.