Meet Alberto Alessi

NEW YORK — A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing the Alberto Alessi (he of the eponymous Italian family empire of popular designer houseware) speak at the New York Times’ Talks Series at the publication’s headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.

Alberto is a third-generation Alessi: son of Carlo, grandson of Giovanni. His maternal grandfather, Alfonso Bialetti, is the one who invented and designed the classic Moka Express coffee maker. Without a doubt, this man has design in his DNA.

He studied law in his youth. However, the urge to pursue a career in the design industry and join the family trade seemed effortless and most natural — and as such, prevailed. The day after he graduated from law school in 1970 was his first day in the company. He hasn’t left since.

He recalls how he wanted to make changes, to have some fun. One can only imagine how utterly boring it can be to run a factory.

Under his leadership, the company went from being innovators in the field of metal-based home goods to superstar trailblazers, with a veritable who’s who of maestros working with them.

He masterminded the strategy of open innovation — teaming up with experts in the design and, at times, architectural fields as opposed to having in-house designers. From a typical “Italian Design Factory,” Alessi became a “Research Lab in the Applied Arts.” And then famously, a “Dream Factory.”

As a result of this paradigm shift, he has been able to collaborate with the industry’s grand masters. Many of them have made significant contributions to the company’s legacy.

First was the great Ettore Sottsass, the iconoclast who designed the iconic Olivetti Valentine typewriter in 1969. The Condiment Set, which he designed for Alessi in 1978, is still in production and is, to this day, one of the company’s best-sellers.

Another maestro, Richard Sapper, designed the company’s first espresso coffeemaker, the 9090, in 1979. It has won numerous awards and also happens to be Alberto’s favorite product. It holds special meaning to him, as it was one of his first projects as design manager for the company.

In 1983, Sapper designed the Kettle with a Singing Whistle. Alberto considers this a “poetic project.” As Sapper was a designer with a flair for the dramatic, he wanted his kettle not to just whistle, he wanted it to sing. And not just any song, but a particular one from his childhood: the sound of riverboats. Think Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, whistling a maritime code to summon his kids. It took them three years to develop and it became one of Alessi’s best-selling products.

The ebullient Achille Castiglioni and irrepressible Alessandro Mendini are two other maestri who have played instrumental roles in the evolution of the brand. You may be familiar with Castiglioni’s Spirale ashtray or Mendini’s Anna G corkscrew.

Followed by maestros Aldo Rossi and Enzo Mari, their list of collaborators reads like an endless roll call of design deities.

To date, Alessi has worked with over 500 designers. Notably, his stable of new generation of designers have included Stefano Giovannoni, Michael Graves, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Ron Arad, Jasper Morrison, Karim Rashid and Marc Newson.

Alberto says their role is mainly to link the design innovator to the people and deliver to them their dreams in product form. It is through this responsibility that Alessi proudly wears the badge of “mediator.”

One hallmark of Alessi products is their superior quality. They last a lifetime, and as you may have already surmised, they are products born out of passion. The unique beauty of each product lies in simple everyday items that are pieces of art. True enough, most of the products are on permanent exhibit at museums like New York’s MoMA, Paris’ Centre Pompidou and London’s V&A.

Like all success stories, Alberto’s is not without conflict. He gamely calls such episodes “fiascos.” His family jokes that it has become some sort of tradition for Alberto to have at least one fiasco a year. They become superstitious when he doesn’t. It is on these “slip-ups” that other great ideas are built upon, and his family welcomes mistakes with open arms. The term “risk-averse” is not in their vocabulary.

Most famous of these fiascos has to do with Salvador Dalí. During the early years, Alberto eagerly took on an ambitious project with Dalí — one that involved a massive order of close to 50,000 metal hooks. Long story short, the project fell through. The hooks — all 50,000 of them — are still in the company factory at Crusinallo, waiting to be used.

To counter that tale of woe, Alberto regales us with the story behind Philippe Starck’s Juicy Salif, which a lot of people, myself included, mistake for a spider.

Years ago, they asked the flamboyant French designer to come up with a new tray. Like all great ideas, Starck’s flash of genius for the “tray” struck him at the most unlikely of times.

He was on holiday in Southern Italy, dining at a pizzeria, noshing on octopus salad. The minute he doused the dome-like head of the puny mollusk with a lemon, an ideabulb flashed above his head, and thus was born what we have now come to know as the Juicy Salif.

Alberto is a man of many stories and a wellspring of ideas. Current projects amount to at least 50 a year. Apart from home goods, the company has designed cars, phones, appliances, watches and jewelry. The man even owns a vineyard. Someday he dreams of going into fashion, in fact an Alessi eyewear line is set to be launched September this year. Watch out for it.

For someone so remarkably avant-garde, with so much success and experience, he remains modest and almost always defines himself as a humble “Mediator.” Others have dubbed him “The Godfather of Italian Product Design.” I simply call him a Maestro.

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In Manila, Alessi products are available at the Alessi Boutique on Bonifacio High Street and Rustan’s.