Leading design company Kartell is one of the symbols of Made in Italy design around the world.
Was founded in 1949 by Giulio Castelli and now run by Claudio Luti. A success story told through an incredible series of products – furniture, furnishings, lighting, home accessories – that have become part of the domestic landscape, not to mention actual contemporary design icons.
A leader in design, Kartell addresses an international clientele with a collection unique in originality, variety and depth of range. Kartell now has over 130 single-brand flagship stores, 250 shop-in-shops and 2500 retailers in over 130 countries.
Composed of objects that express the language and atmosphere of the period in which they were created, but at the same time, are absolutely contemporary, and bear many other values and messages. All this has made them an integral part of the domestic landscape.
The products are multifunctional and cross-sectional, easy to use and with undeniable visual appeal. Colours, irony, a feast for the senses, transparency effects and unique shapes for unique items: Kartell products are immediately recognized worldwide for the excitement they create, their durable functionality and undisputed quality. ‘The continuous evolution in how we use materials and experimentation with new technologies to discover new properties are fundamental in developing Kartell products, both in terms of our quest for functionality and for the development of new aesthetic qualities. Thanks to this constant search, we have been able to introduce glazing, transparency, flexibility, weather resistance, softness and touch.’
Kartell know-how consists of pushing innovation to the limit, enabling designers to express their creativity with new technologies and materials in order to create real “industrial revolutions” within the home.
World famous designers collaborate with Kartell, including Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, Antonio Citterio, Michele De Lucchi, Patrick Jouin, Ferruccio Laviani, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola, Marcel Wanders, Tokujin Yoshioka, Vico Magistretti, Alberto Meda, Enzo Mari, Paolo Rizzatto and Maarten Van Severen. It is a creative team which, together with Kartell, has developed a special intuition through dialogue and the continual exchange of design ideas. This has served to establish a perfect balance between each designer’s project experience and the company’s potential and demands.
The collection is so vast and varied that it can be broken down into lines designed for specific product sectors, as already happens with Kartell Lights. Other themed collections are Kartell Soft (padded and comfortable seating), Kartell Gifts (accessories and ornaments, cash&carry gift ideas), Kartell à la Mode (fashion accessories – footwear and bags) and Kartell by Laufen (bathroom furniture).
The company focuses its activity on two fronts: LABWARE, laboratory materials, and HABITAT, dedicated to furniture, accessories and lighting (successfully reintroduced in the catalogue in 2000). Today, Kartell exports 75% of its sales to 96 countries around the world.
In its 60 years of activity, Kartell has won an enviable string of prestigious international awards, including nine Compasso d’Oro prizes (the most recent were awarded to the Mobil chest of drawers in 1995 and the Bubble Club sofa in 2001). In 2000, the Guggenheim Museum dubbed the Kartell Museum the “best industrial museum”.
