Logica

For 150 years, the basic mechanism of sewing machines, which is "to sew", did not change. In this respect, the history of sewing machine design is very different from that of radios and audio equipment, which has continued to change in the way of new functions being added each time progress was made in technology and new materials.

During its slow progress, however, the design of sewing machines has encountered two periods of big change. The first change occurred in the 1950's, the golden age of sewing machines, when the drive mechanism was changed from the pedal to the electric type. Necchi's Mirella (1957), designed by Marcello Nizzoli, was the first sewing machine, which had become a household product by this time, to make people realize that it was a beautifully shaped object. In the 1980's, the sewing machine encountered the age of electronics. Necchi's Logica, under Giugiaro's manipulations, made just as strong an impact as Mirella.

The success of Logica lay in the displacement of the needle's axis of drive from the center to the back. As a result, visibility around the workpiece was increased all at once, and the operability of the touch sensor panel was drastically improved along with the ease of monitoring. The sewing machine is in the process of transferring from the area of household goods to hobbies. This is why Giugiaro, who felt the need to make the operations more pleasurable, located the stitch programming panel at a slanting view and changed the drive axis layout.

The design of this sewing machine was not simply an epoch-making even by itself, but signifies a major change in Giugiaro himself. During this period, he designed a number of products besides cars, yet he was rarely introduced as an industrial designer. Requests kept pouring in from major corporations following the success of Logica. In this sense, this little sewing machine played a major role in carving a new image of Giugiaro as an all-around designer.