The Alessi company was founded by Giovanni Alessi in 1921 at Omegna, a village near Lake Orta in the foot hills of the Alps. Design (in the modern sense of the word) for the Alessi company first appeared at the end of the 1930’s with Giovanni's eldest son, Carlo. One of Alessi’s special features today is the ability to reconcile its typically industrial needs (in terms of operations and products) with its tendency (at an intellectual and spiritual level) to consider itself more of a 'research laboratory in the field of the applied arts' than an industry in the conventional sense. (less)