Like paper cut-outs
Girotondo by King Kong – Stefano Giovannoni and Guido Venturini for A di Alessi
when a symbol makes the story
The original plan for the Girotondo series for Alessi called for a series of objects decorated with a chain of human cutouts. These plans eliminated or, better still, reduced the formal design of the object to a bare minimum, with everything hinging on the serial repetition of an iconographic and figurative element that everyone could recognise.
The little man was the result of the search for a strong figurative signal that would immediately appeal the memory or, in other words, a sort of archetypal communication culture. The chain of little men is the same motif that children make with paper cut-outs. The idea was to treat stainless steel as if it were paper, having the little men circling the edge as if they were holding hands and keeping together the objects in the bowl with their own ‘Girotondo’.
Founder members of the Boldist movement, Stefano Giovannoni (La Spezia, 1954) and Guido Venturini (Alfonsine, 1957) graduated in architecture in Florence. They work and live in Milan. Since 1979 they have taught and carried out research at Florence Faculty of Architecture, and now also at the Domus Academy in Milan. In 1985 they set up King Kong Productions, concerning themselves with avant-garde research in design, interiors, fashion and architecture. Their focus was on cartoons, science fiction, celluloid mythology, and the areas of imaginary and artificial fiction. They work an iconographic, primary and conceptual datum with a mixture of poetry and irony that supersedes the disciplinary conceptions of object form, composition and design.
Those little King-Kong ‘men’ have turned up on the edging of objects that belong to the most consolidated Alessi traditions, such as our trays or baskets. Now they have multiplied and have set out to invade familiar territories (such as the chopping board and napkin holder) and unfamiliar ones (key ring, bookmark, candles). Their apotheosis, though, has to be ‘Girotondo (Ring-around-the-rosy) Jewellery’ (1998 ) followed by a new range of textile products produced by Lyntex in Belgium (Boys and girls towel, bath and hand towel, bath sheet and bath mat).
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- round tray
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- fruit holder
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- round basket
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- round basket
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- placemat
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- oval ray
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- hors doeuvre set
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- set of two mocha cups with saucers
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- mug with heat resistent glass
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- napkin ring
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- kitchen box with hermetic lid
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- egg cup
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- caps
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- breadstick holder
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- toast rack
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- kitchen timer
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- trivet
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- magnet
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- photo frame
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- bookstand
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- bracelet
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- textile
All products are made in mirror polished stainless steel or in epoxy resin coated steel (red, blue, black, green yellow), silk screen glass and PMMA. The textile products are made of 100% jaquard cotton terry cloth.
Kettles’evolution
In this post you can find a range of kettles created by designers coming from all over the world: from the famous kettle with small bird shaped whistle to the innovative kettle with magnetic steel heat diffusing bottom.
Kettles designed by Aldo Rossi, Micheal Graves, Richard Sapper, Andrea Branzi, Stefano Giovannoni, Frank Gehry
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- kettle 1983
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- kettle 1985
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- kettle 1986
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- kettle 1992
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- kettle 1992
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- kettle 2003
This kettle was the first designer kettle, heralding a new season of kettle ideas for ourselves as well as many other kettle manufacturers. The true heart of this design is the brass whistle whose pipes sing two notes, mi and si, when the steam blows through them, giving a particularly attractive melody. Sapper wanted to avoid giving the kettles whistle the usual irksome sound of the other kettles on the market.
And this purely musical requirement led to what can be described as Alessis first multi-sensorial design.
kettle 1983
The head of a large and successful family of objects designed by Graves in the Eighties and Nineties, this was the first product by an American designer to be included in the Alessi catalogue. It opened the way for the playful design style that subsequently characterised the Nineties and thanks to an inspired mix of post-modern and pop idioms it has become one of the intenationally recognised icons of the Eighties. An Alessi best seller since 1985, this is actually the product that has sold the greatest number of units in the history of the company.
kettle 1985
All kettles are in stainless steel mirror polished with handle in PA or wood. The kettle of Richard Sapper has a melodic whistle in brass.
Under the sea!
Mediterraneo by Emma Silvestris for Alessi
Emma, jewellery designer by trade, let her imagination loose on the submarine world, transferring the weightlessness of its inhabitants into cut and moulded metal – an audacious but successful oxymoron.
The extraordinary success of the “Mediterraneo” Fruit holder by Emma Silvestris in 2006 drove Alessi to explore the potential for expanding this icon into new types of products: Kitchen roll Holder, Paper napkin holder, Napkin ring and Tealight Holders.
The successful and iconic design family named “Mediterraneo”, created by Emma Silvestris in cooperation with Laura Polinoro, has been translated into new types of kitchen utensils (jars and a hook) and bathroom items (all-purpose container, soap dish, and toothbrush holder).
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- fruit holder
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- paper napkin holder
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- tablecloth clips
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- napkin ring
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- kitchen roll holder
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- tealight holder
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- wall hooks
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- kitchen box with hermetic lid
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- tothbrush holder
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- soap dish
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- multipurpose container
All the objects are in 18/10 stainless steel mirror polished, or in steel coloured with a backed-on coating of epoxy resins, red.
P8
Programma 8 by Franco Sargiani and Eija Helander for Alessi 2005
70s: Franco Sargiani and Eija Helander Alessi draw for the “Program 8″, a comprehensive and full of small household objects and modular units based on the same methodology employed by the International style of architecture of that period: the theory of metaprogettazione to open system, adapted to the composition of infinite free housing types and formal. Defined by Alessandro Mendini “the most advanced system ever built home at the international level” (home Landscape, 1979) this project, a radical revision of the instruments for service in the kitchen table and geared for maximum convenience and flexibility of use that all ‘era of his presentation was much buzz in the small world of the Arts de la table, is now resumed and completed by adding features from the cook and serve the store.
Table set 70s
A distance of three decades, and after so much work Alessi has developed on the research front and expressive of the strong visual identity of objects, it seems interesting to repeat the scene of this beautiful utopia design standards and deactivation of archetypal forms of household, research a different balance between Bello and Profit.
This series composed of flat plates, dessert plates and a bowl, all in white porcelain, complete the “Programma 8″ line, fitting precisely into the guiding aesthetic of simple expressive rigour and modularity that characterises the project as a whole.
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- table set
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- table set
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- table set
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- table set
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- salad set
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- salad set
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- cheese set
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- containers in stoneware
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- sets 4×4
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- sets 3×4
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- sets 4×6
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- Table set 70s
The primary and fundamental unit remains the stainless steel tray around which grow stoneware containers, dosing for oil, vinegar, salt, pepper in 18/10 stainless steel mirror polished, bakelite and glass, cutlery from the service, bamboo-wooden chopping board with feet in non-slip rubber.
F.F.F. with love
Family Follows Fiction designed by Miriam Mirri
New tableware objects by Miriam Mirri, a meticulous and delicate author of design’s more playful language, who has been capable of expressing all her own, personal nuances of warmth, a designer who is carrying out her gentle interpretation of playfulness in the 2000s with the design that characterizes her with a very personal, affectionate tone.
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- ice cream bowl and spoon
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- dessert bowl
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- bowl
Love, Big love and Super love are all made in PMMA and 18/10 stainless steel.
F.F.F.
Family Follows Fiction
designed by Stefano Giovannoni, Guido Venturini, Stefano Pirovano, Massimo Giacon, Philippe Starck, Mattia di Rosa, Alejandro Ruiz, Michael Graves, Biagio Cisotti, Alessandro Mendini, Lorena Bozzoli and CSA/LPWK.
A di Alessi products are the result of longstanding collaborations with the best international designers.
Working from a desire to introduce the public at large to the quality and exclusivity of the finest contemporary design, they have created a line of “democratic” and accessible products for every home.
This innovative grater is part of the Family Follows Fiction (F.F.F.) range, hilariously funny and fantasy-inspired products ideal for enlivening any family home.
The metaproject F.F.F. begun in 1991, grew out of a desire to explore the emotional structure of objects, focused in the most delicate, intimate, sensory human needs.
The objects became ludic tools, telling little tales, giving captivating twists to everyday uses, suggesting a mediation with playfulness and becoming a bridge to the fantastical.
At the outset the idea was to reproduce the process of creation and animation of the object common to the world of childhood and to primitive cultures.
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- sommelier corkscrew
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- parmesan cheese cellar with grater
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- grater with cheese cellar
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- egg cup with salt castor and spoon
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- egg-catcher
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- basket for cooking eggs
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- toothpick holder
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- nutcracker
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- kitchen timer
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- bottle opener
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- kitchen roll holder
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- tea-strainer
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- press filter coffee maker or infuser
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- container with small spatula
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- kitchen box for spaghetti
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- kitchen box with hermetic lid
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- bread bin
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- stand for containers shakers for spices
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- sugar castor
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- salt and pepper set
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- pepper mill or salt grinder
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- table set
Since 2004, the year of “Anna G.” and “Alessandro M.”, we have all been waiting for a new element of surprise on the corkscrew front. “Parrot”, the practical, pocket-sized sommelier corkscrew, has been designed to meet these expectations.
sommelier corkscrew
Anna G. and Alessandro M.
Anna G. and Alessandro M. collection by Alessandro Mendini for A di Alessi
corkscrew
Initially presented in 1994, the successful Anna G. icon acquired cult status and generated a small family of objects between 1994 and 2001.
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- pepper mill
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- kitchen timer
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- stopper
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- stopper
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- kitchen box
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- sugar and cream set
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- candlestick
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- corkscrew
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- corkscrew
Could Alessandro Mendini be just a little envious of the huge success achieved by “Anna G.”?
Perhaps that is why he has decided to give us a new character, “Alessandro M.”.
It is obvious that this corkscrew is a self-portrait of its designer. It may seem simple on the surface, but in reality it was a difficult business, inventing a new character that would fit neatly into what was the author’s own autobiographical happening, but would also enhance the international design scenario. I truly admire the expertise with which Alessandro (the designer) was able to develop the project, conferring this new creation with a very clear identity, different yet complementary to his now authoritative companion.
Moreover “Alessandro M.” is a totally innovative product: alongside the standard version, now offered in two color variations, there is also, and for the first time, the introduction of a series of seasonal haute-couture collections: as you will see in the images, this is the concept of garments designed to specification for fashion demands, basically ranges of limited series especially for collectors, which will be renewed with the seasonal cadence of fashion design.
corkscrew
The War of the Citrus
Juicy Salif, citrus-squeezer by Philippe Starck for Alessi 1990
One of the first projects by Starck for Alessi, devised in the second half of the 1980s.
citrus-squeezer
An excellent example of Alessis role as artistic mediator in the most turbulent areas of creative potential (this was his response to our precise breifing for a stainless steel tray). It remains unparalleled in its ability to generate discussions about its meaning and design, partly because of its unconventional use of what semiologists refer to as the decorative veil which, even though generally in a less overt manner, is inexorably destined to cover all objects created by man. To fully understand the true meaning of its existence, it is possibly necessary to refer to the theories of Leroy-Gourham, who considers the notion of functional approximation to be fundamental. This notion suggests that there is always a certain degree of freedom in interpreting relationships between Form and Function: it is precisely this continual play between Form and Function that leads to the decorative veil mentioned above, that Floch considers to be the manifestation of the legendary and aesthetic dimension of the object, as originally defined by Greimas. As well as being the most controversial citrus fruit squeezer of the 20th century, it has also become one of the icons of design of the 1990s, and it continues to be one of the most provocatively intelligent articles in the Alessi catalogue.
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- citrus-squeezer
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- citrus-squeezer
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- citrus-squeezer
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- citrus-squeezer
Citrus-squeezer in aluminium casting, mirror polished
Let’s Ba-Rock
Ba-rock and Ba-ball by Marta Sansoni for A di Alessi 2006
The theme of decorated household objects has its roots in the origins of mankind, when the first man (or more probably the first woman), having forged a clay cup with her own hands, felt the need to engrave its walls with a shell picked up from the beach. This collection designed by Marta Sansoni presents the first results of a meta-project research begun by Laura Polinoro on the theme of hyper-decoration, research which will soon see the design of yet more products.
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- trays and bowl
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- round tray
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- Trays and bowls
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- charm
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- round tray
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- bowl
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- round tray with handles
The “Ba-rock” and “Ba-ball” objects are produced in 18/10 stainless steel. The coloured version are made in steel, painted with a backed-on coating of epoxy resins. The cabachon decorations are made in thermoplastic resin.
Wanna play Shangai?
Blow up – 2004 – by Fratelli Campana for Alessi
The novelty, freshness and poetry of this aesthetic-constructive approach have made “Blow up” a phenomenon that, despite the quick flood of imitations, continues to be the top seller on the international markets.
Despite their quite evident Italian origins, the Campana brothers are actually Brazialian through and through, and they are without doubt to be included amongst the most interesting phenomena of recent young international design. They have brought a healthy breath of fresh Brazilian and sub-equatorial air and poetry to European design.
Their work is hallmarked by “… use of materials in the raw state and by experimentation with poor and recycled matter. Their hybrid, often primitive forms seek to express the contradictions of their urban chaos, drawing on the vitality of indigenous expressions for endowing the products with an authentic nature, bound to the temperament of local folk” (C. Morozzi).
“Blow up”, the family of objects that we are presenting today marks the start of a collaboration that I hope will be long and fruitful. It resounds with echoes of the game called “Shanghai” and was created with the idea of assembling hypothetical offcuts of steel wire, welding them together to form various types of containers.
The first items of the “Blow up” family, whose production was launched in 2004, registered an immediate international success. This because they brought a wave of fresh air into our domestic landscape, sometimes almost too rooted in their form/function ratio. Their method of construction is reminiscent of the forms of recycling typical of urban conglomerates in the third world, at least as we Europeans might imagine them, but this is done poetically, skilfully respecting the basic requirements of the relevant objects. I believe this approach is a good example of Lightness and Consistency, two of the literary recommendations of Italo Calvino.
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- small table
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- small table
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- wall mirror
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- magazine holder
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- wall clock
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- umbrella holder
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- tealight holder
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- placemat
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- flower vase
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- citrus basket
18/10 stainless steel mirror polished and glass
cresysusy