DEMU Design Legacy
Founded by Tommaso De Luca and Antonino Muto, DEMU Yacht Design brings together three decades of experience in yacht design.
Each founder brings distinct yet complementary strengths to the studio. Our combined experience spans every aspect of yacht design, from innovative sailing vessels to cutting-edge motor yachts, from custom projects to successful production series.
This dual expertise, rare in the industry, enables us to approach each project with a comprehensive understanding that transcends traditional design boundaries.
Tommaso
DE LUCA
His 25-year journey in yacht design is anything but conventional. Blending engineering with creativity, technology with artistry, he has forged a unique path that defies standard definitions. Boats take shape first on paper, where pencils dance before computers refine. Like the yacht itself —a fusion of design, function, technology, craftsmanship, and a deep passion for the sea— his design process balances aesthetics and performance, ideas and execution, all driven by an enduring love for the ocean. A lifelong sailor, he doesn’t just design boats – he sails them, lives them, and loves them, with the same deep love and respect he has for the sea.
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When Wally Yachts joined the Ferretti Group in 2019, his focus shifted entirely to motor yachts, as Ferretti’s core business is centered on this segment. Recognizing his expertise, the group entrusted him with shaping Wally’s new motor yacht lineup, blending Luca Bassani’s boundary-pushing ideas with his own. The result? The current Wally fleet: WHY 200, 150, and 100, plus the Wallypower 58, Wallypower 50, and Wallytender 43. If you’ve seen a Wally motor yacht in recent years and thought, wow, that looks amazing—well, you know who to thank.
His adventure as Chief Designer at Wally began in 2009 when Bassani handed him the reins (or rather, the pencil) and told him to bring bold ideas to life. And that he did. In sailing, he left his mark on projects like Wallycento Magic Carpet III, Wallycento Galatea, the 110 ft Barong 3, and the 93 ft Nahita, taking care of both exterior and interior design. On the motor yacht front, he shaped the designs of Wallyone, Wallypower 52, and the many evolutions of the Wallyace 27m, also overseeing both exterior and interior design. Along the way, his diverse experiences allowed him to take on the technical coordination of Wally’s motor yacht projects, ensuring that every detail met the highest standards of innovation and craftsmanship.
In 2004, at just 32 years old, he opened his own studio in Rome. Between a pizza and the view of the Colosseum from his office, he provided technical consultancy to the Wally and CNM shipyards while working as a freelance designer. Some of his motor yachts earned “Boat of the Year” titles at the Cannes Yacht Show. His designs from this period include the CNM 50, CNM 50 Tender, the interiors of CNM 80, the ZEN 70, and several mystery projects over 50 meters—having also done ghost design work early in his career.
Like all good stories, this one starts at the bottom—or rather, in the technical office at Wally Yachts, which at the time was one of the most advanced in the world for sailing yacht design. There, he played a key role in engineering some of the most iconic sailing yachts of the time, including Indio and Y3K. Then came a rather interesting chapter in Wally’s Tunisian shipyard, where he refined and adapted the legendary Wallytender 43 for series production. These early years, spent between drawing boards and boatyards, shaped the deep technical expertise that now fuels his design philosophy.
Antonino
MUTO
With a solid background in industrial and transportation design, Antonino has developed deep expertise in designing innovative and functional products, specializing in the nautical sector due to his passion for the sea.
After earning a master’s degree in nautical design, he accumulated eight years of experience at Wally studio and recently at Cantieri di Pisa.
Despite using cutting-edge design software, Antonino maintains a deep connection with hand drawing, which he considers a fundamental expressive tool to bring unique and personalized ideas to life.
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His career began as an onboard technician, where he spent a year installing electrical and home automation systems on various types of vessels. This hands-on experience provided him with a thorough understanding of the operational dynamics and specific needs of the nautical sector, positively influencing his design approach.
Subsequently at Wally, Antonino had the opportunity to work on projects from the concept phase to final realization, developing specific skills in the design of assemblies and detailed components such as control panels, transformable systems, and multifunctional external elements.
His design approach is characterized by functional rigor, where aesthetics emerge from a careful and rational design process. Each element is studied to optimize performance and the onboard experience, creating a coherent and distinctive formal language.
He has worked on both custom and series projects, experimenting with innovative materials, also coming from sectors outside the nautical field.
This combination of skills allows him to offer a complete service to his clients, from concept design to final realization.