Peeling potatoes is tedious enough without having to do battle with ill-designed kitchen gadgets. Why hadn’t these objects evolved to accommodate users, rather than the other way around? Sam Farber found himself wondering just that when he noticed his wife Betsey, who suffered from arthritis in her hands, struggling to use an old-fashioned peeler. Farber...

I have always enjoyed seeing this kitchen paper with its coffee pot, luncheon service printed over the fun plaid background pattern. It is just so perky and the use of complementary colors and gestural strokes give the design a nice energy and keep it from feeling stagnant. Printed in 1948, it still looks modern today....

Born in Hungary in 1906, Eva Zeisel endured two world wars and the Soviet revolution. She spent sixteen months in a Russian prison and escaped Nazi persecution before emigrating to the U.S. in 1938. Best known for her ceramics, Zeisel called herself a modernist with a “little m.” She rejected doctrinaire geometries in favor of...

The maker and designer of this 1950s American wallpaper are unknown, but that doesn’t stop it from being awesome. Pineapples, chickens and coffee pots mingle happily with martini glasses, menus and big tuna fish. An assertive group of cherries, lemons and limes reoccur frequently, and a self-satisfied sea lion balances a cocktail on his nose....

Since taking the company helm in 1970, Alberto Alessi, President and Director of Marketing Strategies and Design Management, has continually striven to work at the heart of international creative culture, treating the company as a "research lab in the Applied Arts". Aided by Alberto's entrepreneurial flair, Alessi successfully continues to explore and research the most...