Tim Heywood
Espen Øino
De Voogt
Nuvolari Lenard
Stefano Natucci
Winch Design
Perini Navi
Reymond Langton
RWD
Zuccon
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10
TOP 10
EXTERIOR DESIGNERS/
STUDIOSNUMBER OF
YACHTS38311612141411(^9) MOTOR SAIL
38 0
31 0
16 0
11 1
14 0
11 0
014
10 0
71
90
Total metres: 2,624.9m
2,623.6m
1,127m
872.6m
863m
812.2m
794m
778.7m
591.1m
Tot562m
The top designers of 50m+ yachts, January 2006 to December 2017
The social network
T
he world of superyacht design is
intricately interconnected. As our
infographic shows, yards and
designers, both interior and exterior, have
woven a complicated web of collaborations
over the past 11 years. Looking solely at
yachts over 50 metres, we can see that very
few designers stick to just one yard, and in
turn the 81 yards that have worked in this
sector since 2006 have collaborated with
172 design studios.
Bernardo Zuccon, of Zuccon
International Project, predicts that
this plurality will continue to grow in
the coming years. “Today there is an
increasingly strong competition among the
designers active in the yachting industry,
unlike a few years ago when very few
‘chosen ones’ were operating. Our industry
is opening up to heterogeneous actors,
who bring passion and a healthy
aggressiveness to the market.”
Often cited as one of these “chosen
ones”, British designer Tim Heywood
agrees, and welcomes this trend toward a
wider pool of creative minds. “There has
been a shift to more extreme, complex
forms that, I believe, is now due for a
rethink,” he adds. “The pendulum of
good design taste will now swing back
to a purer appreciation of ‘less is more’.”
For Monaco-based designer Espen
Øino, matters of aesthetic taste are very
much secondary to the yacht’s intended
purpose. “It started 20 years ago with
Octopus, which has been looking for
shipwrecks; more recently we have done
Cloudbreak, which has a dual purpose of
surfing and skiing, and I think that this is a
trend we will see even more of. We are now
working on a yacht with snowmobiles and
a ski room on board, as well as all the usual
helicopters and cranes.”
This urge to venture further afield into
colder weather and beyond the usual
demands of warm water cruising is
something all superyacht designers will
have to take into account as they continue
to carve out their particular niche in a
complex and evolving design landscape.
Words – Chris Jefferies Research – Raphael Montigneaux
Overthepast11years,172designershaveworked
on yachts over 50m, bringing with them fresh ideas
Access the world’s
best superyacht
intelligence
boatint.com/
boat-pro
PRO