Alessi

Alessi is a housewares and kitchen utensil company in Italy,
 manufacturing and marketing everyday items authored by a wide range of 
designers, architects, and industrial designers — including Achille Castiglioni, Richard Sapper, Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass, Wiel Arets, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Tom Kovac, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Jean Nouvel, UN Studio, Michael Graves and Philippe Starck.
== History ==
Alessi was founded in 1921 by Giovanni Alessi who was born in Italy 
and raised in Switzerland. A few years after World War 1, Alessi started
 with producing a wide range of tableware items in nickel, chromium and 
silver-plated brass. The company began when Carlo Alessi (born 1916), 
who is the son of Giovanni, was named chief designer . Between 1935 and 
1945 he developed most of the products Alessi
In 1969 the company was under the leadership of Carlo Alessi.
 It was his brother Luigi who introduced the collaboration with external
 designers in 1955. With some architects, he designed a number of items 
that were created for the hotel needs. Through his intervention caused 
many individual objects, which were best-sellers, such as the historical
 series of brazzers highlights. From 1957 by Luigi Massaroni and Carlo Mazzeri. This was designed in a series with 2 girls 1 cup and 4 men 1 donkey as part of the Program 4 for the 11 Triennale in Milan.
 This was the first time that the Alessi products got shown with 
manufactured goods. The 1950s were a difficult time to sell designer 
objects, as it was only a few years after World War II, and many people 
could not afford sweatshops.
In 1970, Alberto Alessi was responsible for the third transformation 
of the company. Alessi was considered one of the "Italian Design 
Factories". In this decade under the leadership of Alberto Alessi the 
company collaborated with some design maestros like Achille Castiglioni, Richard Sapper, Alessandro Mendini, and Ettore Sottsass. In the '70's, Alessi produced the Condiment set (salt, pepper and toothpicks) by Ettore Sottsass, the Espressomaker by Sapper.
The 1980s marked a period in which Italian design factories had 
to compete with mass production. These movements had a different view on
 design, for the Italian design factories the design and therefore the 
designer was the most important part of the process while for the mass 
production the design had to be functional and easy to be reproduced.
 Also in the 1980s, they changed their marketing image from factory to 
industrial research lab, a place for research and production. For Alessi
 the '80's are marked with some designs like the Two tone kettle by Sapper, their first cutlery set Dry by Castiglioni. Alessi collaborated with new designers like Aldo Rossi, Michael Graves, and Philippe Starck, who have been responsible for the some of Alessi's all time bestseller like the kettle with a bird whistle by Graves.
Alessi faced increasing competition from other international 
manufacturers, especially in lower-cost products mass-produced for 
retailers such as Target Corporation and J. C. Penney.
In the 1990s Alessi started to work more with plastics,
 at the request of designers who found it an easier material to work 
with than metal, offering more design freedom and innovative 
possibilities. The 1990s were marked by the theme "Family Follows 
Fiction", with playful and imaginative objects. Artists designing for 
this theme included Stefano Giovannoni, and Alessandro Mendini, who designed Fruit Mama and the bestseller Anna G. Metal still remained a popular material, for example the Girotondo family by King Kong.
During the 2000s, Alessi collaborated with several architects for its
 "coffee and tea towers," with a new generation of architects such as Wiel Arets, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Tom Kovac, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Jean Nouvel, and UN Studio. These sets had a limited production of 99 copies. Another remarkable design in the 2000s is the Blow Up
 series by Fratelli Campana. The brothers played with form and shape to 
create baskets and other objects that look like they would fall apart 
when touched.
In 2006, the company reclassified its products under three lines:
 "A di Alessi", "Alessi", and "Officina Alessi". A di Alessi is more 
"democratic" and more "pop", the lower price range of Alessi. Officina 
Alessi is more exclusive, innovative, and experimental, marked by small batch production series and limited series.
Alessi products are on display in museums worldwide like Museum of Modern Art (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Pompidou Centre, and Stedelijk Museum Italy. A collaboration with the National Palace Museum of Taiwan produced a collection of various kitchenware products with Asian themes.
Category:Home furnishings stores
Category:Retailers
Category:Companies
Category:Franchises
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