Automobili Pininfarina

Automobili Pininfarina : Future Design Story

Pininfarina is a design brand synonymous with Italian style. And the elegance that characterises all of Pininfarina's work to date is clear to see in the new Battista, an all-electric hypercar designed by Automobili Pininfarina.

Battista has received unanimous praise for its purity and beauty, but it is just the start for Automobili Pininfarina as it transforms from a coachbuilder to a manufacturer. When it started to consider how to bring customers into the confidential world of its future designs, an immersive route was the only option as Pininfarina wanted to give a select, hand-picked audience a glimpse of what to expect from 2023 onwards.

One option was to use VR headsets, but there were big reservations. For one thing, Pininfarina wanted to bring a group of people inside the experience, and not be limited to one-person-at-a-time, and it was felt that the use of VR headsets would not befit a prestige brand like Pininfarina. Additionally, it wanted to unveil a physical object as part of the experience, so a seamless immersive solution was required.

A bespoke Igloo Shared VR solution was the only answer. High-lumen projectors mapped to a square room, playing in 270°, could take invited guests on a journey through Pininfarina's heritage, its ambitions and its design vision. So together with our good friends at The Visual Works we created a bespoke experience with a dedicated content management system (CMS).

Up to 15 people at a time were immersed by the Chief Design Officer into his personal design inspirations. And the flexibility of the CMS ensured that if anyone wanted to explore a topic further, a deeper dive diversion could be easily embarked upon.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. At the first outing, Pininfarina felt it could have sold the design vision object to each one of the 350 attendees, a ringing endorsement of the power of immersing your customers in your brand. And embracing the flexibility and reusability of the materials we've supported the brand further on several additional intimate showings.