His dream was to be a car designer, opting to train at the automobile-focused Scienze dell’Automobile school in Modena, a fertile ground for many a talented automotive designer.
Yet, for Varese-based yacht designer Michele Dragoni, fate had a different path in mind. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that keen on boats, as a child I was obsessed with cars, a great passion of mine to this day,” he says. “After university I went to work in Christian Grande’s studio, which was already active in the nautical field.” At that time Grande was working on the Sessa Oyster 30 and 38, and amid concepts and sketches of what for the early 2000s were truly innovative designs, a spark was ignited in Dragoni.
“Working on those projects I realised that a yacht is a much more complete product than a car, more complicated to design because of the living aspect,” he explains. In 2004, with two partners Michele founded what soon became an emerging yacht design company. With Hot Lab, of which he was chief exterior designer, he created some of the most famous exterior profiles of the first two decades of the 21st Century. “However, after so many years of working together, I needed a change of pace,” he continues.
Thus, in 2019 Dragoni Design Lab was born, dedicated to yacht design and more: the signature design of the e-bike Terra, commissioned by VR46 and presented in 2022, is but one example. The studio itself, located in a former Benedictine convent in the heart of Varese, is a manifesto of Dragoni’s mindset. “Unlike for some artists who are at their most creative when in a state of torment, I believe a designer needs an environment imbued with beauty to give their best.
A studio like this definitely breeds creativity” (especially when with Mokka, his French Bulldog, ed.). Dragoni separates the worlds of art and design. “Although an expression of creativity, design must not only have a function, it must also have producibility, it must respect a budget and, if possible, facilitate the yard. It’s almost scientific,” he explains.
In past years, Dragoni has worked a lot on one-off hulls while today he focuses on series production. “Working for a brand imposes strict rules. The most difficult aspect, typical of the automotive world, is to uphold a family feeling, transcending the designer. This approach is not widespread among yacht designers today; you have to look from above and remove any personal ego, understand the yard’s history, see what to enhance and what to revise.
Listen to input from the board and the dealers. It’s not easy, because after absorbing the input the designer then must create something new but recognisable and consistent with the brief. The greater and more detailed the requests, the more natural it is to direct the design,” he concludes. Now, Dragoni is busy on several fronts. For Solaris Power his studio has just designed the 70 Long Range, the brand’s first crossover which accomplishes the impossible: applying the brand’s style to an entirely different type of hull. “The stunning lines of the existing Solaris Power open yachts were inspired by the first lobster models. Creating a three-deck crossover that echoed their lines was no easy task,” explains Dragoni. The 70 is a fascinating hull, muscular yet soft.
Thanks to a series of stylistic tricks, the heights are minimised, appearing streamlined despite her size, and the unit is one of the few 70-foot crossovers to also boast a tender garage, enhancing the design possibilities of the stern while maintaining a spacious cockpit. In order to bring the crossover closer to an open, Dragoni focused on a tall prow, a strongly inclined and slender forward thrust, and sun deck roof pillars oriented in the opposite direction.
Another yard actively collaborating with Michele is Manda Yacht, a company born from the boundless passion for yachting of its visionary owner, Luigi Manda, for which Dragoni has designed the interiors of the S07 Berlinetta, the S09 and the S05.3, as well as the new Manda E9, overseeing the exterior and interior. Dragoni’s signature interiors debuted with the S07 Berlinetta, with exteriors designed by Ceccarelli yacht design.
Refined and bold, the designs are clearly contaminated by the avant-garde ideas of interior and fashion design, juxtaposing taut volumes with decisive circular elements. Unashamedly contrasting essences, shapes and colours play with natural light, creating a fluid contact with the sea. The true masterpiece, however, is the Manda E09, a 27-metre and perfect mix between an explorer and a support unit. A hull with clean-cut lines, muscular and gentle at the same time, that opens a new branch in Manda’s production, all while upholding the family feeling and stylistic icons already defined by Ceccarelli.
Reproposing the bow cyclops, for example, the design instantly becomes more explicit and decisive; the rear is reminiscent of an SUV, the large cockpit has no visible stairs and a cantilevered sofa enriches the beach club. Also of automotive inspiration are the upper fairing protecting the wheelhouse and the thin asymmetrical kimono-inspired cover. Other recent boats include the Audace 50, in collaboration with Aicon Yachts and historic client Lynx Yacht, which won him a World Yachts Award at Cannes; the Tribale 95, a crossover by Tribale Yachts; and the interiors of the 35-metre Explorer custom by Bee Yacht.
More boats are in the pipeline, of course, some of which are surely fascinating, but Dragoni, ever the professional, keeps his lips sealed.
Giuliana Fratnik
