Frank Nuovo was born in 1961 and is an American of Italian heritage. In 1986, Frank began working at Charles Pelly’s Design-works doing tasks involving things such as medical instruments and furniture, and even more advanced tasks such as transportation interiors and automated control systems workstation designs. 6 years later, Nuovo began working as a consultant for Nokia. In 1995, he began working full-time and set up Nokia’s first design and styling center in LA. Nuovo was head of a project dedicated to the creation of Nokia’s first global design team over the next decade. Design centers were built in Denmark, Finland, England, UK, China, Japan, and Germany, as well as in other parts of the United States.

Frank Nuovo

Ten years have passed since Nuovo, who is now 47, set up Vertu, and six since the first Vertu phone, the Signature, went on sale for 24,000 Euro. The global recession has not stopped Nokia’s thriving. Recently, a 10th anniversary edition of the Signature range was launched and even though Vertu phones are produced by 400 staff in Hampshire, expansion continues. By the end of next year, there will be 50 stand-alone Vertu stores from Las Vegas to Tokyo. Last week, the latest opened in London’s Old Bond Street.

Nuovo avoids talk about price tags, but if the 150 isn’t his most expensive creation to date, then it would have to be the Vertu Signature Cobra, a phone that has a snake covered in jewels composed of two diamonds, two emeralds, and four hundred and thirty nine rubies. The phone’s price is around 170,000 euro. If you aren’t ready to sell your new Mercedes over a phone, you can go for the Vertu Ascent, an entry level model that costs 2,900 euro. However, this phone lacks many appealing features such as a camera and Blue-Tooth capability. But then again, if you are desperate for a real Vertu, then this phone would be the way to go.

In the luxury phone market that it created, Vertu now has competition. But with services such as concierge, the company manages to offer something that the competitors simply can’t. “We’re about creating the very best of something, not the latest thing,” says Nuovo. “We’re not talking about a multimedia functionality device here. We already have what might be called the ‘traditional’ mobile phone, which does voice, text, email and surfs the web. But the ’smart-phone’ is still a developing category. When it’s a mature technology, we’ll make those moves.”

Every design by Nuovo contains remarkable beauty. The original Signature luxury phone was inspired by the fine watches of the world, the Ascent was inspired by fine luxury sports cars, and the Constellation was inspired by fine vintage aircraft. There’s a set of Ferrari special-edition Vertus, too, which have silver Ferrari stallions gracing every surface, and Eighties-rock ring-tones composed by Dave Stewart. Comparing Nuovo’s work to Michelangelo’s isn’t far-fetched, but while you can see Michelangelo’s David free of charge, you’re going to need to let go of a lot of money to get your hands on one of Nuovo’s creations.

“The exclusivity of the product is organic – it costs a certain amount to make this product and get it out into the world. Imagine this was a world without beautiful things, where we said mediocrity was just fine and we never tried to make aspirational products. It would be pretty darned dull. You don’t not make a fine car because it’s too good. That’s creative oppression. Our customers are fortunate enough to have the means to support craftsmen. Thank God there are those people, because they’re supporting the hundreds who make the object – be it a leather bag, a Ferrari or a Vertu”, says Nuovo.

Despite being dressed in black from head to toe, Nuovo doesn’t hide his passion for bling. He has a Boucheron Quatre ring made from four colors of gold and likes to drive a Porsche. But also, he is well aware of his huge influence on the mass market, and isn’t shy about it. It was Frank, himself, who designed the layout for the standard Nokia keypad and now there are billions of phones with his imprint on them. Nuovo explains that he strives to make his phones at the most inexpensive cost possible, and yet the phones are inaccessible to all but the richest. And it was the high prices of these phones that started a rise in sales of replica phones, which is still growing to this day at a fast rate. And now it is up to you to decide whether you will hold off buying you dream car to 5 years from now to buy a real Vertu, or purchase a replica Vertu at much, much less.