Indian automotive journalist and writer Gautam Sen’s book, Marcello Gandini: Maestro of Design, has won the 2016 Most Beautiful Book of the Year award (known as Grand Prix du Plus Beau Livre de l'Annee in French) at the recently held 32nd International Automobile Festival in Paris.
Published by US-based Dalton Watson Fine Books, the award-winning book is a two-volume set of 400 pages each, chronicling the work of Italian designer Marcello Gandini who is famous for designing the Lamborghini Miura, Countach and Diablo.
Other striking designs from his portfolio include the first-generation BMW 5-series, the VW Polo, the Fiat X1/9, the Alfa Romeo Montreal, Ferrari 308 GT4, Maserati Quattroporte II & IV, and the Lancia Stratos among others. He has also designed cars for Bugatti, Citroën, Fiat and Renault.
It is believed that Gandini is a reclusive designer who avoids the limelight and his reluctance to look back at his work presented a challenge, but reviews of the book suggest that Sen has managed to put together different aspects of the designer’s life and work beautifully.
The book features over a hundred of Gandini's designs and 924 images, including some that were never seen before. Sen’s book emerged the winner amongst all the automotive books that came out in 2016, in languages including French, German and even Japanese.
There are a total of 1,000 editions of the book, out of which 400 are signed by both Marcello Gandini and Gautam Sen. The book can be bought online here.