Ferrari 12Cilindri Tailor Made: inspired by tradition, driven by innovation

Ferrari unveils the new Tailor Made 12Cilindri that is the celebration of the pinnacle of craftsmanship in it its flagship personalisation programme. This unique Ferrari raises the bar once again with an interpretation of road-going art exclusively for the South Korean market featuring several elements inspired by tradition and driven by innovation.

This extraordinary Tailor Made vehicle is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration spanning three continents: Asia, with the artisanal mastery of four young South Korean artists, ambassadors of their local heritage: Daehye Jeong, Hyunhee Kim, GRAYCODE, jiiiiin, and TaeHyun Lee; Europe, with Ferrari’s Styling Centre and North America, with the vision and expertise of COOL HUNTING®, the award-winning independent publication dedicated to the latest intersections of design, culture and technology.

Over the course of nearly two years the teams faced exciting challenges, blending Ferrari’s legendary engineering and design expertise with COOL HUNTING®’S creative vision, translating the vibrant artistic and cultural energy of Korea into a one-of-a-kind creation from the Prancing Horse.

This 12Cilindri is instantly recognizable thanks to its new transitional Yoonseul paint scheme, specially developed by the team. This unique colour is inspired by Korean tradition, fusing the history and heritage of the region with inspiration from Celadon ceramics, with its many shades of green, and the allure of cosmopolitan Seoul, pulsing to the rhythm of K-pop, electronic music, and the neon lights of the city’s future-forward districts. The result is a vivid, iridescent finish that shifts from green to violet with blue highlights, reminiscent of the sparkling sunlight on the sea, Yoonseul in Korean.

Traditional horsehair weaving is being revisited by the work of artist Dahye Jeong, winner of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2022, a Korean artist who has gained international acclaim in textile craftsmanship and fibre art. Through her unique hand weaving, Jeong creates works of extraordinary fineness, lightness, and transparency, seemingly suspended in air. Her creations – baskets, containers and abstract forms – interact with light and shadow, evoking delicacy, spirituality, and refined contemporary sensibility. Her work is featured in this one-of-a-kind Tailor Made vehicle in multiple ways: the fabric used on the seats, floor and soft surfaces feature one of her iconic patterns, brought to life in a new 3-D fabric developed by a South Korean company and used in a Ferrari for the first time; the glass roof of the 12Cilindri features a screen printing of the pattern, allowing the same interplay of shadows and projections as light passes through, again a first in a Ferrari; most iconically, a hand woven work made from Mongolian horsehair, sourced from suppliers certified by the local Chamber of Commerce, is featured on the dashboard, providing the unique opportunity of having an art work integrated into the vehicle’s interior. These firsts could only be achieved by intense collaboration between the Ferrari Styling Centre, R&D team and the creative partners.

Hyunhee Kim innovates with material to reinterpret traditional Korean objects through a critical, contemporary lens. Her well-known Korean wedding trousseaus are built in an ethereal, semi-translucent acrylic to bring life to their role as “containers of memories.” Kim frequently creates transparent objects, sometimes suspended in space, evoking lightness and fragility, crafting an immersive, dreamlike environment. Her work has been acknowledged by several prestigious prizes, including the Cheongju International Craft Award and the Iksan National Craft Award.

Visible across in the vehicle’s exterior, Kim’s translucent work can be seen in the vehicle’s distinctive Scuderia Ferrari shields, its wheel caps, long F nameplate and Prancing Horse, together representing a level of customisation seen in a Tailor Made vehicle for the first time. The interior features a unique modification to the centre tunnel with the same translucent effect, alongside a handmade dedication plate with the project’s name in traditional calligraphy by the artist.

Kim also created a traditional case for valuable and meaningful items for the boot of this 12Cilindri, which the collector can use as a luggage case. This piece also holds an object in the form of a Ferrari key customised to her visual language, so that the owner can fully experience her varied and original practices.

White, in turn, becomes the leitmotif for various interior and exterior elements, inspired by the artistic research of TaeHyun Lee. Known for his work in contemporary art, Lee is particularly recognised for his use of traditional Korean techniques including lacquer, which he reinterprets in a modern context through his white lacquer using a technique that is extremely complex. His works often combine modern materials with lacquer, creating glossy, reflective surfaces of striking visual impact. Through lacquer, Lee explores concepts such as layering, depth, and the transformation of matter, bridging Korean artisanal tradition with the language of contemporary art. His vision gave rise to the 12Cilindri’s unique white brake callipers – a first for a factory-made Ferrari and white shift paddles.

Electronic music sets the rhythm for this Ferrari’s exterior livery thanks to the meticulous work of GRAYCODE, jiiiiin. This South Korean sound and performance artist duo, renowned for their performances and installations exploring sound, space, and the intersection of technology and art, have visualised the iconic Ferrari V12 sound—literally translating the sound of the 12Cilindri’s engine into a visual artwork masterfully rendered on the vehicle’s bodywork by Maranello’s artisans. The technique used to add visual depth to this livery was applied using the same transitional paint, but one shade darker — a new and unique treatment seen for the first time on a Ferrari.

Evan Orensten and Josh Rubin, the creative minds behind COOL HUNTING®, inspired and coordinated the work of the artists alongside JaeEun “Jane” Lee, who served as the project’s curator, and the Ferrari design and R&D teams.

Ferrari 12Cilindri