Alessi - Italian Design

The Alessi company was founded by Giovanni Alessi in 1921 in Omegna, Italy. Giovanni, a talented sheet metal worker, produced items by hand for the table and the home out of copper, brass and nickel-silver. Giovanni's son Carlo, trained in industrial design, joined him at Alessi and was responsible for many of the designs produced in the 1930s through the mid 1940s.

During the war years, Alessi produced stars for uniforms and mechanical parts for Savoia Marchetti airplanes. After the war, thanks to an enormous demand for brass ladles for the U.S. army, the Alessis expanded the company and started mass production. Carlo's brother Ettore, who joined the company in 1945, was the first to bring outside designers to the company, such as the architects Carlo Mazzeri, Luigi Massoni and Anselmo Vitale. Since that time, the range of products offered by Alessi has expanded to include such items as office accessories and electrical appliances, in collaboration with a growing range of contemporary designers such as Jasper Morrison and Philippe Starck, all the while maintaining Alessi's commitment to design and quality.