Alessi goes digital

In Giulio Iacchetti’s studio in viale Tibaldi 10, the outcome of an interesting exploration is being celebrated with what he calls, “a 7-metre long story”. “It’s the metaphor for the design journey that we have undergone: meeting suppliers, producers of 3D printers, suppliers of materials for 3D printers”.

The idea – says Iacchetti – creator and art director of “Alessi goes digital” – came about from a challenge set to some other designer friends. “Why don’t we each design a pen, for producing with a 3D printer” – that first project – called “Ten Pen” – was over two years ago. “At a certain point, we got stuck”, he follows, “to I decided to go to Alessi and transform a new generation self-production into a research project for a company”. Alessi welcomed the proposal, maintaining the spirit of research and exploration. “Our intention however was that they might bring in a digital aspect into their analogue production. There are many companies that deal with 3D printing but they are digital natives and they are small. Alessi could be strategic in this world with its particular background and international distribution network”.

“The key word in the project is goes”, explains Guido Musante, who wrote and edited the catalogue. “It is a journey that turns around the premise of global makers: not all are designers, not all are producers”. The exercise was completed and the collection consists of six functional pens in fibreglass and nylon, produced by a company from Modena. Why the pen? “With the freedom to design anything with the 3D printer, we decided to design the most analogical object there is. We gave ourself rules right from the start: they would all take the same refill, be the same size in such a way to have the same packaging, and attempt to bring out the characteristics of 3D printing, creating objects that couldn’t be made using traditional technology.”

So should manufacturers be looking into this? “They have to do research, even if it is not aimed directly at products. This research can give rise to – and will give rise to – content that will have a considerable effect on manufacturing. For this, I thank Alessi who believed in it even though they had some reservations about the pen product. If a powerful company like Alessi put in its schedule also objects printed in 3D there would be a real revolution” concludes Iacchetti. “The pens were a test, maybe we’ll start working on other objects that are more in the company style. Today though is about celebrating the completion of this research”.

12–15 April 2016
Alessi goes digital
Research for a collection of native digital pens
c/o Studio Giulio Iacchetti
viale Tibaldi 10, Milan