Kartell
Founded by engineer Giulio Castelli and architect Anna Castelli Ferreri in 1949, the history of Kartell is permeated with experimentation, new production techniques and deep design collaborations.
Designer Gino Colombini was Kartell’s technical director from 1953. He would design many household items for the brand, creating bright, colourful products to revolutionise the home. In the early years Castelli Ferreri focused on creating a stronger polymer suitable for manufacturing larger and more complex objects, and it would be those breakthroughs that led to the opening of a furniture and interior design division in 1963.
Kartell, known for colour, has also perfected transparent plastic. In 1999 it became the first company in the world to use transparent polycarbonate to produce furniture. The result was Philippe Starck’s completely transparent La Marie chair, made from a single mould. This paved the way for Starck’s 2001 Louis Ghost chair, which has become symbolic of the brand and is still one of Kartell’s bestsellers. The company has continued to explore the theme of transparency in surfaces and shapes, embracing new technologies and high-performance materials that today lead the group’s innovations in recycled and bio materials.
Kartell has worked with the greats, from Ettore Sottsass, Joe Columbo and Marco Zanuso, to Gio Ponti and Anna Castelli Ferreri. Iconic designs from the early years remain an important part of both their story and their collection. In the late 1980s Claudio Luti joined the company, Castelli's son-in-law, and with his background in fashion, Kartell began collaborating with well-known designers and architects that opened up new territories. Working in collaboration with Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio and Piero Lissoni, they launched the A.I. collection that asked A.I. to create a chair made of recycled polymer using the least amount of material. The collection was also a world first and Kartell now applies the technology across its manufacturing process.
At Kartell, design, research, and innovation are core to the brand. Its headquarters are in Noviglio, Milan, Italy, and alongside its habitat division, Kartell has a lighting division, and develops textile ranges, tableware, eyewear and bathroom accessories. Their collections can be found in design museums including the Kartell museum, opened in the company's general headquarters in 1999 to commemorate its 50th anniversary.
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Icons of design
For Kartell there is no design without emotion. A design piece must tell a story that goes beyond the product itself. The more a design connects with us, the more likely we are to make it part of our lives and pass it on.
One of Kartell’s most recognisable designs is the Componibili storage collection first released in 1969. Designed by Anna Castelli Ferreri at a time of huge transformation in furniture design and manufacturing in Italy, it is both a legacy piece and one of the brand’s most popular designs. Another is the '4801' chair by Joe Colombo and the only piece by Kartell that was made entirely of wood when it launched in the late 1960s. New technology has now made it possible to create its curved and sinuous shape using PMMA. While Joe Colombo’s KD28 table lamp, first released in 1967 and designed to be moved around a room or stacked to create a luminous tower, has again joined the collection as the brand continues to draw from its rich back catalogue.
Other standouts include Ron Arad’s playful Bookworm shelving system and Philippe Starck’s La Marie chair that was the world’s first transparent polycarbonate chair and the forerunner to the now famous Louis Ghost. Designed by longtime collaborator Philippe Starck, it is both visible and invisible, real and immaterial, and as Starck has described, ‘a natural result of our past, our present and our future.’
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Quality and manufacturing
Quality and innovation are the driving force behind Kartell’s creativity and success. The brand’s creative laboratory fosters the collaboration between designers and research teams, combining innovation and industrial production, and developing materials that are not only sustainable but also revolutionary.
Launching the ‘Kartell loves the planet’ manifesto in 2018, the company’s new operational blueprint covers Kartell’s entire production and distribution chain and includes removing waste from the environment and turning it into raw material. It’s a process that includes end products as well as strategic, financial and creative decisions, and the management of relations and interactions with the supply chain, including design and communications.
Kartell’s material research has led to the creation of the new Louis Ghost made with a sustainable polycarbonate that derives in part from vegetable waste, while preserving the same level of transparency, thermal and mechanical resistance, robustness and strength as the original version.
The aim of the Smart Wood range is to use the least amount of wood possible and source all of the material from FSC-certified forests that allow the company to guarantee its provenance and contribute to the responsible use of forest resources. Winner of a 2020 Red Dot Award, the Q/Wood upholstered armchair also features the innovative, environmentally friendly Aquaclean fabric which contains no PFCs and can be cleaned with water, no need for chemicals.
For the iconic Componibili, ongoing research has enabled the storage units to be produced in biopolymer made from renewable raw materials sourced from non-GMO agricultural waste. The Componibili Bio is now in the collection of the MOMA Design Store in New York and has obtained international TÜV Austria certification with the maximum star rating for a biodegradable product.
Today 95 per cent of new designs presented by Kartell are made from ecologically friendly materials and 90 per cent of the products in the Kartell catalogue can now be taken apart and fully recycled. By 2030 Kartell has stated that it will use green materials in the manufacture of every product in its collection.
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