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.
Bathroom?!F.F.F.style
Family Follows Fiction for Bathroom
designed by Stefano Giovannoni, Miriam Mirri, Massimo Giacon, Stefano Pirovano, Elisa Gargan and Guido Venturini
Alessi is not focused only on kitchen and tables accessories but also on all other parts of an house, in order to completely serve people in their everyday life everywhere, always with the creativity and fantasy that makes every object unique and special.
With “Merdolino”, the first object by Alessi for the bathroom, and one that was not free of criticism for having dared touch such a difficult subject, Alessi brought in a welcome breath of poetry to which people were not used but which opened up whole new vistas in development.
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- toilet brush
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- cotton swabs holder
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- cotton pad dispenser
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- toothbrush holder
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- soap dish
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- liquid soap dispenser
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- Bathtub plug with float
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- Bathtub plug with float
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- toothbrush cover
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- interdental thread holder
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- nail brush
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- nail clipper
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- toilet roll holder
All the bathroom collection is made by thermoplastic resin and PP.
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
OrienTales
Designed by Stefano Giovannone with Rumiko Takeda in collaboration with the National Palace Museum of Taiwan for A di Alessi 2008.
A bit like a group photo of a Saturday-morning cartoon’s cast, Stefano Giovannoni and Rumiko Takeda’s OrienTales designs are actually bone-chine tableware invented for Taiwan’s national palace Museum: each hand-finished piece represent an Asian language or symbol.
The Banana Kid monkey is a sugar bowl, Lilt Bird holds soy sauce, lotus is a dessert bowl, Goldfish is an egg cup and the Paradise Bird is a milk pitcher.
This new family of object is part of an ongoing collaboration with the National Palace museum in Taiwan, which began in 2007 with the Chin Family. In fact, the museum set Stefano’s immagination racing, inspiring him to explore the millennial tradition of Chinese applied arts and develop his contemporary interpretation of them.
This interpretation is keeping with the playful style of which our designer is an acknowledged master. A characteristic that, in these designs, takes a very new form. Just like the objects in the “Chin Family”, each piece performs the roles of domestic household objects and is, in part, hand-decorated. The magic of Giovannoni’s design lies in the fact that these objects recall the grace of 18th century ceramic trinkers, while continuing to be utterly contemporary!
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- OrienTales
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- OrienTales
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- Sushi set
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- Soy sauce container
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- Salt and pepper set
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- Set of caps, sugar bowl, salt and pepper set and milk jug
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- Sugar Bowl
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- Salt and pepper set
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- Egg cup
All the pieces are in fine bone-china, melamine or thermoplastic resin, and all are hand-decorated.
The Chin Family
Designed by Stefano Giovannone with Rumiko Takeda in collaboration with the National Palace Museum Taiwan for Alessi 2007
Part of Alessi’s collection of the 2007, the Chin Family are a wonderful addition to the kitchen! Made in collaboration with the National Palace Museum of Taiwan, the Chin family embraces and celebrates Chinese culture and history. Designed by Stefano Giovannoni, each member fulfils a specific kitchen function.
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- Salt and Peppr Set
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- Cell Phone Charm
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- Set of two bottle caps
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- Kitchen Timer
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- Key Ring
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- Bookmarker
The tall King and Queen Chin with their subtle flora print, replace your salt, pepper or spice grinder. The small Mr and Mrs Chin salt and pepper set stand beside a cute lotus flower. With a matching kitchen timer and the adorable egg cup, the Chin Family can make you smile at any meal. Using a wonderful palette of vibrant pink, blue, gold and green, these figures feature a sophisticated style and rich character.
But that’s not everything! There are lot of other brothers in the big Chin Family: the King and Queen magnets and the bottle caps, and then the cell phone charm, the key ring and bookmarker, all made in thermoplastic resin and instead of the usual method of casting a single piece of plastic from a single injection, the character-objects are made with separate molds (head, hat, body, foot, pompom) which are then assembled and hand painted.
cresysusy