This story originally appeared on the Gents Cafe Newsletter. You can subscribe here.
The most profound connection with an object often begins with the invitation of touch—a desire to experience materiality, feeling it under the tips of our fingers.
This obsession with how raw materials converge and dialogue has been a fundamental part in the professional journey of Francesca Sangalli, Head of Color & Trim and Concept & Strategy at CUPRA Design: under her guidance, the brand set out on a mission to transform the “raw essence” of nature into an entirely original design language, creating a visceral, tactile experience for the owner.
In this Brand Talks interview, Francesca invites us to explore the non-negotiable centrality of design and how conceptual coherence is the key to building an emotional connection with an object in a modern world.
Your path stems from concept design and a desire to transform materials. Is there a precise moment, linked to an object or a tactile experience, when you realized this passion would become your professional mission?
I studied architecture in Milan, and even during my studies, I was completely obsessed with details, things that were made exceptionally well, and the fascinating contrasts where multiple materials converge and dialogue with one another. To give you an idea, I have been attending the Salone del Mobile since I was nineteen years old, and I haven’t missed a single edition. I still have all the photographs I took back then, and looking at them now, they are exclusively close-ups of details.
That passion for observing how materials interact to create something interesting has always been a fundamental, almost obsessive, part of who I am. When I went to England on an Erasmus exchange to study industrial design, I finally realized that this, rather than traditional architecture, was my true direction. Eventually, I joined the Advanced Design Studio of Mercedes-Benz in Italy, where I stayed for sixteen years.
Truth to be told, I never dreamt of designing cars from a young age; my entrance into the automotive world happened almost by chance. My true passion has always been designing beautiful objects rooted in materiality, contrast, and the conceptualization of spaces. My focus naturally leaned toward strategic design because, for me, every single element must have a purpose; without meaning, a design loses its significance and simply isn’t interesting. So, there wasn’t one singular turning point, but rather a continuous evolution of this innate attention to detail.
Beyond the professional realm, where do you typically look for inspiration?
Nature is my ultimate source. In fact, it is the foundational inspiration for everything we do here at CUPRA. I don’t look at nature through a romanticized lens, but rather in its rawest, most authentic form. We actually established the word “raw” as a core keyword to define the brand’s DNA. It represents the absolute authenticity of nature—think of the intricate details of a rough stone, or the brilliant, iridescent colors that emerge from an insect’s shell. These are, to me, the most beautiful things in existence.
I believe that combining this authentic inspiration from nature with the latest technologies yields incredibly interesting results. In industrial design, you cannot rely solely on undistilled materials; it is anachronistic and unfeasible for mass production. However, I strongly dislike the automotive industry’s traditional habit of copying materials—like using plastic to imitate metal, or foils that fake the look of wood. That approach is simply not authentic and does not make for a compelling brand story. It is far more interesting to extract the raw essence of nature and transform it into a fresh, new design language, creating something entirely original rather than settling for a cheap imitation.
You argue that today a luxury object must communicate and engage the owner intellectually. How does this narrative and cultural depth translate concretely into your choices and the design strategies you coordinate?
I believe this is one of the key themes that allows us to truly differentiate ourselves as an automotive brand in this global historical moment. For us as Europeans, culture and history are not abstract concepts we merely study; they flow in our veins and define a specific modus operandi in how we approach any project. This sense of conceptual continuity is something I believe we handle very well at CUPRA. A concept shouldn’t just live within the design—it must touch every area and the entire ecosystem of the brand. I often say that for us, design represents the brand identity itself; it isn’t a separate department that exists alongside marketing or sales. It is a singular, cohesive whole.
For us, design represents the brand identity itself; it isn’t a separate department that exists alongside marketing or sales.
In that sense, there is an intellectual and conceptual coherence that speaks to a deeper story, one where we can truly leverage everything found within the European DNA. Whether or not someone likes the aesthetic is a separate discussion, but one cannot deny the coherence in how we narrate a story where the car is just one part of a much larger ecosystem. The secret to achieving this is the non-negotiable centrality of design.
Our CEO communicates this consistently across all contexts, from dealer events to official presentations. He reinforces that design and brand identity are inseparable and must remain the priority. While there are always compromises to be made in the corporate world—especially regarding costs and logistics—the design itself must remain uncompromisable. This is a strategic choice made at the highest level of the company, not just by the designer. The design is simply the final, beautiful execution of that overarching corporate strategy.
Your work focuses on a strong, recognizable aesthetic force. How do you ensure durability over time for a young brand like CUPRA?
We are a brand that, by definition, wants to be highly contemporary and highly permeable to the ecosystem we operate within. Culture evolves; it is never static. Consequently, CUPRA is an evolving brand, constantly in transformation. When we talk about durability over time, we are not approaching it like a heritage brand that carries a massive, century-old historical baggage. We are a young brand, only eight or nine years old, so we do not rely on historical anchors to maintain the longevity of our storytelling.
Interestingly, another journalist recently brought up the topic of vintage cars, which touches directly on this idea. The beauty of vintage cars lies in how they strike certain emotional chords. Today, modern cars have become somewhat homogenized because the industrial system naturally tends to standardize technology. In the past, there was a higher degree of “handmade,” creating the sense of a unique piece that makes you fall in love. You could physically touch the materials, and every element possessed its own expressive force. There was a uniqueness even in the imperfections—a non-industrial defect became yours, forging a deep emotional bond. That is the essential theme, and it is why anyone who appreciates good design ultimately loves classic cars; it is a feeling that is often lost in modern vehicles.
So, what is the path forward today? That is exactly what we are working intensely to figure out: trying to recover that pure emotion, that unique, almost binary relationship between you and your car. We aren’t trying to forcibly copy vintage aesthetics; we are trying to rediscover that raw sensation. We achieve this by placing the driver at the absolute center and analyzing how to maximize this emotional experience in a modern key. We focus on a holistic experience driven by materiality. When you peek inside one of our cars, you feel a genuine urge to reach out and touch the surfaces. You want to analyze how all these distinct materials blend into a shared language—how the underlying graphics dialogue with the transparent layers above, catching the light to create beautiful reflections. For me, this is the modern key to interpreting that desire to touch, to interact, and to recreate that deeply unique relationship between the machine and its owner.
“Own the Wheel” is CUPRA’s first art exhibition. The artworks reinterpret the steering wheel as a symbol of control and awareness, celebrating those who choose to remain at the helm of their own lives in an increasingly automated world. How did this dialogue between art and motoring come about, and why is it so fundamental for CUPRA to put the human value of choice back at the center?
The central claim of our brand is “No drivers, no CUPRA.” That statement alone immediately places the driver at the absolute center of our universe. And what is the ultimate element that speaks directly to the driver? The steering wheel. It is an incredibly iconic object that perfectly represents the deep symbiosis between the human and the machine. We decided to explore the concept of the steering wheel to spark inspiration for our future—not simply viewing it as a mechanical object, but as the literal point of connection between you and a vehicle. Through this lens, the car is no longer seen as a cold, inanimate machine, but almost as a living, breathing creature.
To truly capture that raw feeling, we handed this brief over to artists. Unlike those of us in the industry, artists are not rigidly bound by the functional constraints of automotive design; they have the freedom to look at the concept in a purely abstract way. They were able to focus entirely on the emotional and physical connection rather than the object itself. That desire to translate the visceral, human feeling of driving into pure expression is exactly how this beautiful collaboration was born.
