Rodolfo Bonetto

Olivari Designers

Milan 1929-1991

A professional jazz drummer and self-taught designer, around age 30 Bonetto interrupts his musical career and starts to collaborate with companies linked to the automobile industry, body shops, and component manufacturers.

In 1946 he wins the first of seven Golden Compass Awards for his Sfericlock for Veglia Borletti. His automobile and appliance designs are so innovative that Thomas Maldnado assigns him a professorship at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, in charge of the first car design course.

In his career he designed interiors for Fiat, machine tools for Olivetti, radios for Autovox and the Melania armchairs for Driade (1972) and Boomerang for Flexform (1968).