Kartell

Kartell – furniture and lighting from the heart of Italy

Founded in Milan, Italy, in 1949 by engineer Giulio Castelli, Kartell is today one of Italy's established design companies. Above all, however, Kartell is regarded as a pioneer of plastic furniture production.

While many manufacturers long considered plastic an inferior material, Kartell embraced it and, as a pioneer – much like Depot4Design and Heller today – helped plastic achieve equal standing alongside other materials.

Kartell first made its name in the early 1950s with household goods. The driving force was in-house designer Gino Colombini, who served up previously drab, colourless kitchen items such as lemon squeezers, bins and storage jars in appetising new colours and shapes.

Innovative, creative and functional Kartell furniture

During the 1960s, Kartell carried out research in its laboratories so that designers could develop products based on a growing range of patented plastics. Leading Italian designers such as Joe Colombo, Achille Castiglioni, Vico Magistretti and Anna Castelli Ferrieri used them to create various plastic furniture series that are now regarded as classics. These include Joe Colombo's 4867 stacking chair (1968), considered a bestseller and still very popular today, and Anna Castelli Ferrieri's 4970/84 stackable container units (1967), which need no screws or fixings at all and are still a permanent part of the Kartell range.

After moving from Milan to Noviglio in 1972, Kartell went through a real crisis. The 1973 oil crisis did not leave Kartell unscathed. Expensive oil, the basis of plastic production, not only drove up the price of plastic furniture but also gave plastic as a material a serious image problem. With the ecological movement of the 1980s in particular, plastic products came under increasing pressure and gained a reputation as throwaway goods.

Designer Philippe Starck led Kartell out of the crisis

In 1988, company head Giulio Castelli stepped down, and Claudio Luti, who had previously worked with fashion designer Gianni Versace, took over the management. Kartell's way out of the crisis came above all through a design by Philippe Starck. With Starck's Dr. Glob chair (1988), the company turned the corner and restored plastic's reputation in furniture. Many successful products followed: Antonio Citterio's Mobil container system and Ron Arad's Bookworm shelf (both 1994), Philippe Starck's Dr. No chair (1996), Vico Magistretti's Maui chair (1997), now one of the most widely used chairs in the world, and Philippe Starck's Bubble collection (2001), to name but a few.