The family of ALESSI DESIGNERS

In our new video series, Alberto Alessi and four Australian creatives from the Alessi stable share insights and inspirations.

ALBERTO ALESSI

“In my opinion design is a creative discipline based on poetry and art,” says Alberto Alessi, managing director of the iconic house that has been in his family since 1921. “What I am looking for is a poet.” Having pioneered the brand’s famed collaborations with the postmodernists in the 1980s, Mr Alessi continues to champion design talent worldwide, including an impressive pool of Australian artists, architects and designers.

ANITA DINEEN

Launceston jewellery and object designer Anita Dineen joined the Alessi family in 2014 when her svelte reimagining of a cheese knife was named winner of the inaugural Alessi Design Award. Inspired by the antechinus, a mouse-like marsupial native to Tasmania, Anita’s curvilinear blade cleverly balances on itself, evoking Alessi’s playful elegance.

ADAM GOODRUM

Adam Goodrum’s winning entry from the 2015 Alessi Design Awards lends poeticism to an everyday ritual by elevating the humble eggcup to a design object with intelligence and beauty. The ‘Nest’ wraps an egg in a crown of micro-cast stainless steel, making it at once highly resolved in its utility and beguiling in its multifaceted sculptural form.

ADAM CORNISH

Combining an experimental approach to industrial processes with a predilection for natural motifs, Adam Cornish utilised Alessi’s advanced laser-cutting technology to dazzling effect for his 2015 ‘Trinity’ collection, weaving table centrepieces with vortex-like concentric structures to suggest a fluidity and dynamic motion.

SUSAN COHN

Celebrated Melbourne artist, maker and silversmith Susan Cohn is propelled by her curiosity about people and the joy of shared experience. “Tableware is about the ritual of sharing food,” says Susan, whose ‘Cohncave’ bowl – that layers two pieces of perforated metal to create unique and mutable patterns – has been produced by Alessi since 1992.

The wisdom of Alessi designers, and call for entries.