A best seller since it was first produced in 1994, the Anna G. Corkscrew designed by Alessandro Mendini is a tongue-in-cheek homage to a real woman. Her smiling face has become something of a cult figure over the years, giving birth (so to speak) to a rich family of objects for the table and kitchen in a wide range of materials.
The cutlery set Collo-alto, designed by Inga Sempé, derives from the elegant spoon for serving risotto she designed. The project for the cutlery that makes up the service develops the basic features of that first spoon, distinctive for the contrast between curved and straight lines. The elongated and narrow shape of the segment that connects the handle with the active part of the cutlery gives the name Collo-alto (Italian for ‘long neck’) to this collection.
The Twist Again fruit bowl that Decq designed for Alessi is cut from a single piece of sheet metal.
Try it Trivet designed by Dror Benshetrit for Alessi
The 9090 isn't just the first espresso coffee maker in Alessi's history: it was also Alessi's first object for the kitchen after the 1930s, the first of Alessi's many Compasso d'Oro awards (1979), Alessi's first object to be inducted into the Permanent Design Collection at the New York MOMA. Of course it's the best-loved Alessi coffee maker, as well as Alessi's first "amphibious object", i.e. it is for kitchen use, but with its high design quality it can also be brought directly to the table.
Richard Sapper (1932-2015)
"For me, the shape is the result of an inner life that any object must have." - Richard Sapper
Photo courtesy of Knoll, Inc.
9090 designed by Richard Sapper
Painted Dinner Cutlery, 1978, designed Alessandro Mendini
5053 Bar Strainer designed by Ettore Sottsass: Born in Innsbruck in 1917, he is known the world over as one of the initiators of the revolution in architecture and design which led away from the rigid functionalism of the years prior to and following the Second World War. A great and influential Maestro of Italian design, the energy of his language and the vitality of his color and line contrast sharply with any intellectualism and rigidity. He died in December 2007.
Glass Family
Juicy Salif: A truly iconic object and symbol not only of Philippe Starck but of Alessi itself, this citrus squeezer - as revolutionary as it is surprisingly functional - was sketched in its essentials by Starck during a holiday by the sea in Italy, on a pizzeria napkin.
Giulio Iacchetti's barware will be displayed at WantedDesign 2014 as part of the Alessi Design Lab exhibit. Photo by Miroza and Olimpia Zagnoli.
Using i.design EFFIX, a high performance material conceived by Italcementi, Luca Galbusera designed a table centerpiece for outdoor use. Luca Galbusera, winner of the Concrete Design International Competition, will show work as part of Alessi's Design Lab exhibit at WantedDesign.
This set of condiment servers by architect Peter Zumthor is rendered in frosted glass and stainless steel.
Atomium egg cup by Christian Ghion for Alessi.
Chiringuito Cocktail Shaker by Ron Arad for Alessi, $204 at store.dwell.com
This classic shaker, with a slim, twisted body that's easy to shake and a vacuum-seal enclosure, is a foolproof choice.
Ovale Serving Flatware
Alessi Pescher Trivet
After the latching components of the boiler body are precisely aligned in a jig, a technician at Alessi spot-welds the pieces together.
Final assembly begins: Workers at the Alessi factory carefully tap the finished pieces of an upper container together.
Design is a process–these are models and prototypes that Sapper and Alessi used when developing the 9090.
The factory contains a wide array of hydraulic presses. The cagelike bins hold groups of cold-pressed objects left ready for the next phase of production. Alessi's facility manufacture fifty-thousand 9090's per year.