Alessi Alberto

Alberto Alessi represents the third generation of the family-run Alessi brand, maker of witty, contemporary table and kitchenware. Alberto studied law but in 1970 joined the company. Determined not just ‘to create boring trays’, he resolved to give it a major shake-up. He overhauled the company’s corporate identity, graphic design and packaging, and encouraged collaborations with artists – most famously with Salvador Dalí – yet his aim was democratic: to offer the public artistic items at low prices. At Be Open, Alberto treated the audience to an entertaining history of the company. He mentioned his grandfather Giovanni Alessi, who founded the firm in 1921, and his father Carlo, who introduced industrial design to it, notably with the Bombé coffee service. Over the years, Alberto, who sees the firm as a ‘research lab in the applied arts’ and, has instigated collaborations with such avant-garde titans of design as Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Philippe Starck and, more recently, Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel. At Be Open, Alberto illustrated Alessi’s heritage by zeroing in on Michael Graves’s 9093 kettle of 1985 – one of the company’s bestsellers which is innovative for being ‘multisensorial’: it has a bird-shaped whistle attached to the spout and a handle with gently undulating indentations that is comfortable for fingers to wrap round. Alberto blew through the whistle to demonstrate that it sounds like birdsong when the water boils. ‘The idea was to create an emotional design that revives childhood memories,’ he said.