Alberto Alessi is president of Alessi Spa as well as head of marketing strategy, communication and design management. The eldest son of Carlo Alessi, he belongs to the third generation of the Alessi family and officially joined the company in 1970.
4:32:41 pm - Thu 24 Feb
Ends with “Theory of borderline”. We work on line between area of possible, and the area of not-possible. This line is hard to find. You can only find it by using your intuition, and taking risks.
Mass production industries exist far from thenborderline, they cant take risks. But if you can live on the borderline, you can be very successful.
And loud applause plays the master off stage. Artist and craftsman.
4:25:55 pm - Thu 24 Feb
Alessi sees his company as being a design lab, and a mediator between creativity and the market, or “finding the customers’ dreams.
4:24:21 pm - Thu 24 Feb
Alessi introduces the Phillipe Starck period. And claims Starck must have had cosmetic surgery.
The Starck kettle that was too complicated to work! Alessi makes gentle fun of Starck’s naming talent. A grater called Mr Moo Moo (sp?)
4:21:23 pm - Thu 24 Feb
80s – two ways of looking at design. Design factories vs mass production industries.
Amazing array of Alessi products being shown. I advise you to go to their site and refresh your memory. Such an incredibly distinctive aesthetic, across the decades.
4:18:00 pm - Thu 24 Feb
“My attempt to put cooks and designers together didn’t work too well.”
But the Alessophone is a success – most expensive sax on market, only 4 or 5 produced a year.
4:13:58 pm - Thu 24 Feb
With the singing kettle, the poetic function is more important to Alessi and Sapper than the practical function.
4:10:47 pm - Thu 24 Feb
These old Alessi designs are beautiful and so very Alessi. “A multi sensorial kettle” , for example. One that makes a melody, not just a noise. A melody to remind the designer Sapper of his childhood.
After a year, engineers couldn’t crack the kettle build. 2 years later, they got it right.
4:05:48 pm - Thu 24 Feb
Alessi mentions his flop in 1971 – products based on Dali designs. “I think Dali was joking, but at time I was too young to understand.”
4:02:17 pm - Thu 24 Feb
Alessi showing old products – including first in 30s in new material of stainless steel.
50s was start of the phenomenon of Italian design factories.
4:00:03 pm - Thu 24 Feb
Alberto Alessi, the pot who called the kettle sexy is up. Also the man whose company actually designed the sexy kettle. Among a million other things.
Alessi begins with history of his company, and specifically his family. The company’s history begins with tradition of small product design 250 years ago, in the Alessi home village close to Swiss border.