Alessi

ALESSI

ALESSI IS ONE OF THE LARGEST COMPANIES OPERATING IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Some articles by Alessi Alessi S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of design objects, founded by Giovanni Alessi in 1921.

THE COMPANY

The company is located in Crusinallo, a hamlet of Omegna, in Piedmont. Founded by Giovanni Alessi in 1921, the company has its roots in the artisan tradition of wood and metal processing, which is characteristic of the Strona Valley and the area overlooking Lake Orta, where Omegna is located.

This activity was born as a metallurgical laboratory with foundry. We can summarize the history of Alessi, from 1921 to now, as a succession of three generations of entrepreneurs, in which we find two brothers whose activities and talents are complementary, and lead to a new stage in the development of the company.

From 1921 to the second world war, it was a manufacturer created by Giovanni Alessi with his brother Carlo (FAO – Fratelli Alessi Omegna). After the postwar period, the first profound change started which transformed the manufacturer into a factory, guided by Carlo and Ettore Alessi (ALFRA – Alessi Fratelli). In 1970, with Alberto Alessi’s entrance in the company, Carlo’s son, the third transformation took place: the company became one of the “Factories of Italian design” (ALESSI).

Michele Alessi, Alberto’s brother, joined the company in 1975. Currently the company is managed by a board of directors entirely made up of Alessi family members: in addition to Alberto and Michele, there’s also their brother Alessio and their cousin, Stefano Alessi.

La Cupola. Aldo Rossi

THE BEGINNING

The first objects designed date back to the mid-thirties, when Carlo Alessi, son of the founder, started working inside his father’s company. Then he became the manager in the fifties.

Many of the products made by the company up to 1945 were designed by Carlo; after that date he completely abandoned design to devote himself exclusively to the company management. Design, in the sense that is currently given to this term, became the main component of Alessi’s business from the seventies, when Alberto Alessi started collaborating with some external designers like Achille Castiglioni, Ettore Sottsass, and most of all Richard Sapper, designer of the famous 9090 espresso coffee maker.

Since the eighties the company has been collaborating with the greatest names of Italian and international design. This allowed the products to be the result of a poetic and expressive research, typical of the business of a “laboratory operating in the field of Applied Arts”.

This company policy traces back to the idea of craftsmanship that the company wants to pass on for consistency with its roots and with those creative and intellectual movements which, starting from Arts and Crafts of the mid ‘800 had the aim of artistically redeveloping the serial production. The “factories of Italian design”, including Alessi, are the “spiritual heirs” of this movement.

THE OUTLET AT THE ALESSI FACTORY IN OMEGNA

Among the designers who have collaborated with Alessi over the years, there are: Alessandro Mendini, Aldo Rossi, Ettore Sottsass, Richard SapperAchille CastiglioniStefano Giovannoni and Philippe Starck. In 2004 Alessi presented the project Tea & Coffee Towers, 20 tea and coffee sets designed by a group of international architects among which Greg Lynn, Gary Chang, MVRDV, Tom Kovac, SANAA – Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, David Chipperfield, William Alsop, Dezsö Ekler, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito and Jean Nouvel.

The company exports 65% of its production to 60 different countries.

Alberto Alessi won the Premio Artusi 2015 prize by the municipality of Forlimpopoli for the “family and industrial history that have guided the Italian design linked to the kitchen”.

1921: THE MANIFATTURA FAO PLANT

FAO’s first production was inspired by the canons dictated by the most prestigious household item companies from the beginning of the century, with particular attention towards the Austrian and English ones. Giovanni had a real obsession for quality and well-done work: his products in copper, brass and alpaca, then nickel-plated, chromed or silver-plated, soon became known for the great care in the production and the perfect finish. In 1932 Carlo Alessi, Giovanni’s eldest son, joined the company at a very young age: he designed most of the objects produced between the mid-30s and 1945.

1932: CARLO ALESSI

Design, intended as we do today, was introduced in the history of Alessi by Carlo, son of Giovanni, founder of the company. Trained as an industrial designer, he designed almost all the products up to 1945. His last project “Bombé”, an archetype of Italian design, dates back to that year. In the ’50s his father took over the management.

1945: MAZZIERI, MASSONI, VITALE

In 1955 the collaboration with external designers started: the architects Mazzieri, Massoni and Vitale were called to design a series of objects for hotel supplies. They represented a cultural turning point: they introduced in the “home” world the concepts of designer, project and design.

In 1957 the 870 shaker, the 871 ice bucket and the 505 ice tongs were selected for the Milan Triennial XI: for the first time Alessi took part in an exhibition on “designer” industrial production.

1945: THE INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION

During the 1950s, the company gradually abandoned the use of soft metals in favour of stainless steel, transforming the production from artisanal to industrial. Carlo Alessi, the founder’s eldest son, became general manager. His brother Ettore, who entered the company in 1945, became head of the technical office, strengthening its design identity. Some “industrial types” were created under his leadership, such as baskets and citrus fruit holders produced with steel wire. With Ettore, ALFRA also opened to collaboration with external designers: Luigi Massoni, Carlo Mazzeri and Anselmo Vitale.

1970: THE DESIGN FACTORY

Alberto was moved by a simple but revolutionary intuition: functionality does not exhaust the link between people and objects. We need poetry, emotion, identity. Alberto Alessi described his career as the succession of a series of encounters. Franco Sargiani, Ettore Sottsass, Richard Sapper, Achille Castiglioi, Alessandro Mendini, Aldo Rossi, Michael Graves, Philippe Starck were those who, between the ’70s and the ’80s, contributed to definitively transforming the company.

Franco Sargiani and Eija Helander were the first designers with whom Alberto Alessi, who had just joined the company, collaborated. Graphics, packaging and stand design were the elements of the partnership. They were also the authors of Alessi’s logotype, which started to be used in 1971, and of the programma 8, a system of modular table objects with a square or rectangular base.

EARLY 70S

In the early 70s a group of Italian graphic designers carried out a series of researches regarding products and graphics. They were Silvio Coppola, Giulio Confalonieri, Franco Grignani, Bruno Munari and Pino Tovaglia, under the name of Exhibition Design. They designed a collection of baskets and trays with radically new lines for Alessi. The emblem was the Tiffany tray by Coppola.

Aldo Rossi, an architect who was wary of the industry, took part in “Tea & Coffee Piazza” at the end of the ’70s. For Rossi, the coffee pot is a symbol par excellence of the dialectical relationship between architecture (or rather urban planning) and the domestic landscape in which this miniature monument is inserted. The espresso coffee pots La conica, La cupola and Ottagono were born from this research, in addition to other objects linked to coffee making.

Robert Venturi participated in the same events as Aldo Rossi. At a production level, he designed The Campidoglio tray for Alessi, which inspired by the Roman square with the same name, is the steel version of the one designed for the “Tea & Coffee Piazza” operation.

The Twergy line by Ettore Sottsass for Alessi’s 100th anniversary

1972: SOTTSASS

Ettore Sottsass came to Alessi preceded by the fame of his work for Olivetti. A sort of philosopher full of charm, with whom Alberto discussed of high design topics and of the role of industry in society. One of the first projects was the series of 5070 oil jugs: small table architectures, among Alessi’s most famous objects today.

1977/78

Alessandro Mendini, author of “paesaggio casalingo” for Alessi (1979), was the official historiographer of the company. As a designer he designed a lot of objects. He designed two extensions of the Crusinallo Factory, the Alessi Museum and numerous exhibitions and set-ups. As design manager he invented and coordinated some of the most important project operations developed by the company. The Anna G cork screw is one of the projects that became an icon for Alessi, whose cult figure status was smartly underlined by an advertisement by Lowe Lintas Pirella Goettsche. The latter depicted it as a new Marilyn.

Richard Sapper joined Alessi thanks to Sottsass: “he’s the one of the Tizio lamp, he has never done a wrong project”. In his work he always starts from the solution of a problem. The results are aways extraordinary: the 9090 espresso coffee pot, the first Alessi project for the kitchen, or the 9091 kettle with melodic whistle, which arrived before the designer kettles.

Riccardo Dalisi redefined the Neapolitan coffee pot. His research has been the longest in the company’s history, writing a book over the years and producing more than 200 tin prototypes, all working.

1980: THE POST-MODERN PERIOD

The operation arose from the desire to explore the world of architecture to identify talents able to renew the language of design. The “Tea & Coffee Piazza” gained notable success, definitively crediting Alessi among the factories of Italian Design. Two new great designers were discovered: Aldo Rossi and Michael Graves.

1982

Achille Castiglioni, designer of Dry, the first Alessi cutlery set, was a great master. He was curious about everything, gifted with particular irony and exceptional modesty. A designer of masterpieces.

1983

In 1985 the architect Michael Graves designed an object for Alessi destined to become an icon of that period: the 9093 kettle, with its unmistakable whistle in the shape of a red bird. This object was the ancestor of a long series: a fusion of suggestions captured by the European tradition, Decò, American Pop and pre-Columbian cultures.

1985

Massimo Morozzi dealt with research, coordinated image, product design and also became art director. Among the founders of Archizoom (1966), he was described by Medini as “realist”, meaning that he faced every topic based on its superficiality, giving life to a new and autonomous object every single time, a real character. We would like to remember “Pasta Set”, which no one recognized as a boiling pot given the mysterious and fascinating shape once it was presented.

1986

Philippe Stark, author of the popular “Juicy Salif”, embodied the most innovative, moving, sentimental design. Pure poetry.

Enzo Mari rejected any formal frills of industrial design. The first encounters date back to the ’70s, when Alessi wanted to produce the Arran tray designed by Mari for Danese: this only succeeded in 1997, 20 years later.

1989

Mario Botta met Alessi in 1989 when he designed Eye, one of the first company wristwatches. In 2000 another project arrived: the pair of jugs Mia e Tua, example of a balanced, direct and meaningful language.

At the end of the ’80s Mendini brought two young architects from Florence to Alessi. Stefano Giovannoni and Guido Venturini. Playful, elementary, with a cartoon language. Among their drawings, a tray with a border pierced by a motif of little men stood out, like those that children make with scissors. The project was called Girotondo and it became a highlight not only for King Kong, the group of the two architects, but also for Alessi.

With Stefano Giovannoni, Alessi gave life to many very successful projects: the Merdolino toilet brush, the Mary Biscuit cookie jar and the Mami pot series, presented in 1999 in stainless steel. In fact, with the end of the 90s, the colourful period of the first plastic objects came to an end in search of more classic, stable, long-lasting materials.

Venturini drew bewildered and out-of-the-ordinary characters for Alessi, such as the Gino Zucchino sugar bowl or the Inka coffee maker. Soft and pictorial lines were given to the Acquerello set of dishes and the All-Time cutlery.

1990 NEW MATERIALS

An important decision was that of using materials different from steel. So the company opened up to plastic; to wood (in 1989 with Twerg); to glass, porcelain and ceramics (in 1992 with Tendentse and 100% Make up).

1992

Frank Gehry, one of the most renowned architects, famous for the sculptural aspect of his works. The melodic cap and handle of the Pito kettle, which Gehry designed for Alessi in ’92, are inspired by the shape of two darting fish.

2000: ECLECTICISM

The 2000s opened with the project “Tea & Coffee Towers” (the previous one was in 1993). This operation gave rise to a new series of collaborations, from which industrial products were created, such as those of David Chipperfield, of Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas, of Toyo Ito, of SANAA, of Wiel Arets and of Yan Kaplicky. Alessi production reflected the eclectic character it had assumed since the mid-90s. The company’s ability to always collaborate with new designers is reflected in a collection of objects that differ in material and type. But most of all in the design language.

The centerpiece by Zaha Hadid

THE COLLABORATIONS

Branzi designed objects dedicated to the small series of products for Alessi. Among these, the CO1369 toothpick catcher and the Ercolino bottle opener, wooden products which reflect the attention towards the topics of ecology and natural forms.

The Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who passed away in 2016, also collaborated with Alessi. She created a vase for flowers, a centerpiece and a grater for the company: all united by an asymmetrical and irregular line, in the style of Hadid.

OAKLEY CAPITAL FUND AND ALESSI’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

In 2019, the English fund Oakley Capital bought 40% of Alessi in order to conquer foreign markets as well. For the 100th anniversary of its foundation, in 2021, the company created a new collection: Alessi 100 Values Collection. For the occasion, all the prototypes produced in the studio by designers such as Sottsass (and the famous Twergi line), Mari, Castiglioni, Mendini and Snøhetta, and never put on the market, have been collected. The celebrations will also continue throughout 2022 to underline the company’s desire to look to the future with the same poetry.