Cappellini

Cappellini is synony­mous with great contem­po­rary design. The Italian brand’s global influ­ence and iconic catalog have come to fruition under the direc­tion of Giulio Cappellini, who joined the busi­ness in 1979. His father Enrico has founded it in 1946, but at the time Giulio took over it was a small oper­a­tion that produced mostly tradi­tional pieces in wood. In the 1980’s, Giulio began to realize his ambi­tious vision to trans­form the brand into a propo­nent of bold, progressive design.

One way he achieved this goal was by cham­pi­oning new talents. Regu­lar­ing visit­ing design schools and the studios of emerg­ing design­ers, Giulio injected the brand with a flurry of new voices, effec­tively launch­ing many careers in the process. Jasper Morri­son, Marc Newson, Tom Dixon, Marcel Wanders, Ronan and Erwan Bouroul­lec, and Nendo — now inter­na­tional sensa­tions — all created early work for Cappellini.

The brand also estab­lished a will­ing­ness to pursue new trends and explore prod­ucts that occu­pied the inter­sec­tion of art and design. Exam­ples like Jasper Morrison’s Think­ing Man’s chair (1988) and Marcel Wanders’s Knotted chair (1996) exem­plify the manu­fac­tur­er’s commit­ment to the cutting edge and desire to push the bound­aries of furni­ture. Not surpris­ingly, the company’s veri­ta­ble works of art can be found in the collec­tions of many promi­nent insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompi­dou, and the Victo­ria and Albert Museum. Context Gallery has been a trusted partner with Cappellini for over 10 years.