BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD?

A crash course in car design at Alfa Romeo's Centro Stile, following in the footsteps of the masters

- Chris Rosamond

THERE are various competing claims for the coolest job in the car industry, but short of being offered a seat in a Formula One car, making a name for yourself as an automotive designer has got to be right up there.

Style is the substance of a car designer's job, so they're almost compelled to present a cool image. The best ones are intellectual and great communicators, with an understanding and empathy for cultural mores and trends, which they soak up like sponges for inspiration.

For me the dream began and ended in primary school. Cars, cats, dinosaurs, pirate ships... I was never very good at any of them. But now Auto Express has an opportunity to see what might have been.

A visit to Alfa Romeo's Centro Stile design HQ in Turin, located on the site of the historic Mirafiori assembly plant, has just taken a remarkable twist. Along with a trio of fellow motoring hacks, I'm sitting at a desk in front of a sketch pad, while the lead designer of the new Alfa Romeo Tonale SUV prepares to give us a masterclass in how to design an Alfa. Pencils at the ready, class!

Alexandros Liokis is the real deal, a passionate car enthusiast to the core. His love affair began while looking at pictures in his father's car magazines. By 13 he'd bought a Citroen DS to restore with his brother, and was beginning to sketch cars for himself. His efforts soon turned to modifying and improving what he saw.

After studying industrial design in his native Greece, he moved to Italy for a two-year masters in Automotive Design at the famed Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), where a lead role in designing the Alfa Romeo Gloria student project for the 2013 Geneva Motor Show led to an internship and subsequently a job at Centro Stile.