Made in Italy

After World War II, the design scene in Italy became involved in the moral and physical reconstruction of the country and began to take advantage of the horizons that the new industrialization opened up for the design world. So, companies quickly began to produce series of industrially produced furniture. New industrial companies appeared, such as Arflex, Arteluce and Kartell, which worked in close collaboration with young architects. Some of the traditional artisanal companies, like Cassina and Borsani, soon evolved into industrial leaders while other companies, like Azucena and Poggi, became famous for their artisanal values, even though they also worked closely with architects.
The wide diffusion of artistic experimentation and the youth protest movements of the mid 1960s injected a new creative energy into the Italian design World that reacted with the new technology available. The use of plastic at that time was key in consolidating the link between creativity and industrialization as it gave designers the opportunity to express themselves in an even more provocative way. This became Radical Design. In this period Italian design assumed an even more important role on the International scene thanks to the extraordinary contributions of Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottsass.