Established 14 years ago by three fresh out of college, barely 20-something designers, Antonio Romano, Michele Dragoni and Enrico Lumini have poured blood, sweat and tears into their journey to success, ensuring that Hot Lab is a force worth reckoning with.
Meeting at their first professional jobs within a small product design studio, neither Antonio, Michele or Enrico originally anticipated a career in superyacht design. Though Antonio had studied under Giovanni Zuccon in Rome - who, he admits, had planted the seed that grew into a distinct passion for yachting - at this point, yachting was still just something that piqued all three’s creative and professional interest. But, as Antonio remembers, it wasn’t long before opportunity came knocking. “One day we decided that as we’re all thinking about yachting as a possibility in the very distant future - let’s go to the Genoa Boat Show. It was 2001, and we just wanted to think about designing a seat or an anchor. A product, basically - but never the yacht. So we went to every single exhibitor at the show, enquiring about products and sub-contractors.”
After an exhausting day of enquiries, the 21-year old trio decided they deserved to get on board at least one yacht at their very first boat show. Sidling up to the hostess of a small fibreglass boat from the Italian yard Raffaelli, she asked, “Do you have a yacht?” Looking at each other, the reply came naturally: ‘But of course we own a yacht!’ The bold and brazen no-fear approach that goes hand in hand with youth was in full force, as Antonio continues: “She told us the owner of the yard was thinking of a new model and he was looking for a new designer. We said, ‘Well, here we are!’ We immediately went to meet Gianpiero Raffaelli, and he asked us if we had already designed some yachts. We looked at each other again and said, ‘But of course we’ve designed yachts!’ He didn’t know that, actually, this was our first time on a boat...”
Bold and brazen, indeed, if not a little naive and overly opportunistic, but this fearless move was a lucky shot that, fortunately, paid off. How did you have the confidence to undertake such a project without any previous experience in yacht design, I ask. The answer comes easily. “We were 21 years old,” laughs Enrico. But more seriously, each of the Hot Lab boys had something in them; a drive, a passion, a yearning to not only succeed, but to excel. And so, what could have been potential (and premature) career suicide was flipped to a golden opportunity. Pouring themselves into the project and learning on the go, they successfully delivered the interior design of the 16-metre project to the yard, putting themselves on the first rung of the ladder of superyacht design in the process.
The years that followed proved hard but productive work for the three new yacht designers. In the years leading up to the Crisis, they say, Italy really was a land of opportunity when it came to design, and working on several smaller projects proved to be the perfect learning curve for the team as they tried out the ropes. Although the big bucks were yet to come, their determination to make a name for themselves overpowered their desire to reap rapid financial reward. This period of practice was also a contributing factor to Hot Lab surviving the Crisis years, as Enrico puts it simply: “We were too small to die.” Without a huge team to support and before being accustomed to the real 30+ metre superyachts that fill their drawing boards today, Hot Lab were able to not only ride out the Crisis years, but to make the real step towards superyacht design with the signing of their first real superyacht project, the 37.5-metre Bilgin-built Noor, in 2007.
It would be easy to mistake Hot Lab’s trail of successes to this point as luck. Luck, however, is a word thrown about far too much in regards to success. Luck implies chance, but the signing of the project in question was the result of an aggressive branding and marketing campaign, not a simple fortunate accident. The Hot Lab team knew it was imperative to create a name for themselves - and they wholeheartedly endeavoured to do just that. “At the beginning, we sent our designs to every single yachting and design publication possible. We really focused on creating the name,” says Antonio. “We knew we were too young for the big yards to take us seriously, but we were not stupid. We brought ourselves into the spotlight.”
This smart investment into branding and marketing paid off with the signing of the Bilgin project, though the Hot Lab team still, undeniably, had a lot to prove. This could not be demonstrated more by the fact that the Turkish owner was actually building Noor in conjunction with a sistership belonging to a friend, with a bet placed in good humour on who would have their boat delivered first. Young and inexperienced with a substantially lesser price tag, it seemed an easy win for the client’s friend. But this was not to be. Hot Lab recognised this opportunity as make or break. They gave it their all regardless of accepting a substantially lower fee than their rival designers, and, of course, finished ahead of schedule with a perfect product and an extremely happy client.
With a happy owner and a network of advantageous relationships now established, it wasn’t long before other shipyards started noticing Hot Lab - with one of the most notable projects riding on this success being the refit for one the most well known, important Turkish family’s 43-metre Trinity Yachts built vessel, Keyla, which strengthened the brand’s position in Turkey. “She won The WSA (World Superyacht Award) in 2014 for best rebuild, and she was done for an important family in Turkey,” says Enrico.
Their inaugural Italian-built superyacht being no other than the very first Mondomarine M50, the Ferrari-red Ipanema. Measuring 49.2-metres and delivered last year, Ipanema, Michele tells us, was the project that really developed the Hot Lab design style. He says, “Ipanema started a little bit of a design signature for us, and there is something in Ipanema in several of our other projects. The best part of this project was having time to spend on it, and no pressure - like it should be every time, but of course it’s never like that. So if you can spend 6 months on the lines with no stress, it’s going to stand out. Ipanema allowed us to develop ourselves and her lines are really striking.” Met with industry-wide acclaim, Ipanema quickened the already-moving snowball effect of good recommendations and visibility.
Proving this, 2016 saw the Hot Lab team spark a new collaboration with another Italian shipyard, this time Baglietto, which saw three superyacht projects developed. Antonio continues,”This year also saw a new collaboration with Heesen Yachts (project Cayman) as well as enquires from RMK, of which we have the 55-metre XXL, and from Sarp Yachts for a 63-metre project Aouda that we presented in Cannes and Monaco. Then we have started to design a 68-metre superyacht under construction at AES, and we are working directly for the final customer. They have a great team full of very smart people from all over the world, and she is scheduled to be delivered in Spring 2018. She’s huge, 68 metres but over 1,800 GT. We are very happy with how that process is going.”
So, where to from here? “In the next five years, we’re going to present a collaboration with one of two of the most important shipyards in Northern Europe, something we are seriously working on at the moment. In the next seven years, we would like to have a 70+ metre boat in the water - we’re also seriously working towards this. In the next 20 years, we will buy all of the other studios and we’ll be at the top! In 2018 we’ll have two big yachts in the water, and we have a surprise which we hope to announce soon enough,” Antonio tantalising concludes our interview. With no shortage of projects keeping them beyond busy, it seems that the guys at Hot Lab are not just hot, they’re on fire.
This article was published in a recent edition of the SuperYacht Times newspaper. Subscribe now and never miss another issue.
