Egizia Design

Our mission: International leader in the production of gift and household articles designed in accordance with a ?taste-trend ? function ? rationality? logic, created with sophisticated direct manual silkscreen technologies, aimed at a demanding public. It was 1949, and instead of approaching the increasing market that revolved around reconstruction of the country through buildings, machinery and furniture ? typical post-war growth sectors, especially in the Val d'Elsa ? Egizia began writing an important page in the history of decorative aesthetics. Young art school graduates, specialised workers and office staff, all with a shared passion and technical expertise, took the company to top quality levels, notable results and growing recognition on the market. The most recent management evolution, investments in new premises and increasingly refined technology ? over and above the search for recognisable and functional design ? have been linked with the artistic talent and crafts ability of the resources created and in force within the company. So Egizia has grown, has acquired avant-garde production plants and has increasingly attracted the attention of national and foreign markets. But it has maintained its bonds with tradition and history intact: the history and tradition of work, which is the sum total of artistic talent and craftsmanship, without penalising the aesthetic and manual aspects of the work process but creating a powerful identity ........ ?of which we are proudest!? The results of this choice of direction were not long in coming in terms of figures, image and fame. Egizia's contemporary and classic lines, together with the exclusive ones created for prestigious national and international brands and designers, are known and appreciated worldwide: the best confirmation of an important sixty years of work. Technique Craftsmanship, decorative refinement, quality and the absolute indelibility of all three are guaranteed by a procedure involving manual silkscreening (at extremely sophisticated levels). In practice, it is a question of direct printing on the glass or crystal form (by means of a silkscreen on which part of the decoration is impressed) of one or more colours, or colours with gold, platinum or silver, or transparent or opaline crystal sands, white or coloured. The colours can be thinly spread or thick. With blending of innumerable techniques a great number of aesthetic results can be achieved, satisfying not only the eye but also touch and feelings. During or after decoration, the colours, precious metals and sands are vitrified in the kiln with one or more firings between 450°C and around 600°C. After firing ? by fully automatic avant-garde plant ? all items undergo careful packaging in accordance with the needs of the various collections or end users. EGIZIA: the object and its history Every Egizia article has a history. First it was devised and designed, then decorated and carefully supervised through each phase of the work process. We begin by selecting and designing the form of the object and creating the decoration, safeguarding a rigorous artistic, iconographic and cultural process which, together with technique, has to keep up high barriers against imitation. In collaboration with external art directors and designers, our internal staff is committed to transforming an idea into a project, which then becomes a product that unites originality and elegance, with one eye to trends in taste and the other intent on interpreting them and anticipating their development. EGIZIA meets Design Ongoing fragments of originality are added to the company's traditional collections through new collaboration with celebrated designers. In fact, in 1995 Egizia got to know Ettore Sottsass, one of the few great architects and designers who have remained indelible icons on the international design scene. With Sottsass Associati, Ettore Sottsass drew a group of designers to his Milan studio, some of them young and little known but whose creative and design potential were recognised by Sottsass and Marco Zanini. With their freshness and desire to do something new, side by side with world famous names, they offered Egizia an innovative and international catalogue of decorations and objects. This meant that the company could approach worldwide markets with a new, contemporary image capable of tackling any competitor. The outcome of this collaboration was: hwc handle with care, a collection of decorated glass, by Sottsass Associati, for E G I Z I A, presenting projects by: Flavia Alves de Souza, Liana Cavallaro, Manuela Di Loreto, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Giovannella Formica, Mercedes & Riccardo Espinosa, Barbara Forni, Riccardo Forti, Gabriella Giandelli, Johanna Grawunder, James Irvine, Nathalie Jean, Defne Koz, Mario Milizia, Mike Ryan, Ettore Sottsass, Marco Susani, Nanae Umeda, Elisabeth Vidal, Marco Zanini. In 2003, Egizia also began working with Karim Rashid who is gifted and provocative, extravagant, amusing and eclectic. Here's what Karim Rashid had to say about Egizia: ?Egizia gave me the chance to leave my mark in the world ? with my contemporary hieroglyphics, my icons, my symbols, the optical motifs and digitally inspired decorations ? by way of their beautiful glass and their precise manual silkscreen work. Decoration that bears meanings brings a sense to and a relationship between our objects and our lives. I feel there is a splendid connection between my Egyptian origins and Egizia, like a symbolic marriage of our love for this new world of ours, decorated in a contemporary way.? Karim After Sottsass Associati and Karim Rashid, Egizia got to know Paola Navone. With her the company began an important project and inaugurated a new concept for its collections: chic, luxury, sensuality, elegance and contemporary design, plus transverseness of materials with innovative ideas of coordination. In Paola Navone's words ......... ?For more than 50 years Egizia, with its extraordinary and exclusive heritage of technical know-how, constantly increased over the years through research and development, has brought forth a stylistic design based on slight textures, mirrored reflections and transparencies. The project inaugurates a new concept for Egizia: this collection of objects that are coordinated or suitable for coordination (vases, glasses, plates, bowls and lamps in glass decorated with precious silkscreen prints harmonise pleasantly one with the other and with trays, silver cutlery and other accessories). Objects created to produce atmospheres of enchantment and seduction. The transparent surfaces go well with the textured and reflecting surfaces of metal. One chooses the objects. One plays with styles. One experiments with new matching and unprecedented uses.? Study and research, contemporaneity, sensuality, qualitative constancy, passion and creativity: the ingredients measured out by Paola Navone and Egizia. All of this is contained in Paola Navone's 2004 collection for Egizia, a further token of two years of company transformation in which the current range was redefined and the future range set out. Naos, Alnair, Kaff, Deneb, Gemma, Mizar, Persei, Shedir: thousands of years ago the Arabs gave these names to some of the most spectacular stars that came into their view. Today they denote objects in Paola Navone's 2006 collection for Egizia, entitled Ali Baba. Ali Baba speaks of a classical, romantic world, but at the same time it is contemporary because it interfaces with design elements and details, thanks to a careful reinterpretation that has updated a journey in the universe of flowers, perfumes, spices, light, beverages and rites belonging to the oriental style, which for centuries has been the grand master of hospitality and conviviality. Ali Baba introduces new and perhaps unexpected items into the Egizia range, such as jugs, teapots, coffee pots, glasses for coffee and tea, liqueurs and spices. Ali Baba is a magical collection: a magic enveloped in an imaginary fairytale world. A collection in which the decorations are tiny, precious details, refined embroideries. This is only the latest port of call on Egizia's voyage. A voyage through the world of decoration, design and work processes. A necessary and indispensable heritage, in order to reach the next destination, and the next and so on. Ports of call that will increasingly enrich Egizia's voyage through decoration. We could still say much about the complexity of the work processes, the number of silkscreen printings required for the most sophisticated decorations, the difficulty in achieving certain effects, the obstacles to be overcome in creating special colours that have to stand up to a kiln temperature at which the colour indelibly blends into the glass: but all this is of little interest to the end user. It is the heritage of knowledge and experience that the company has accumulated and administered. What interests the end user are the objects which, though simple in form and use, bring into the home a charge of quality and freshness that reveals the passion of the people who created them and the enthusiasm of the people who designed them. For all these reasons, we are happy about our 60th anniversary, and we acknowledge that, since our company has come so far, credit is also due to everybody who has believed in us, in our products and abilities and ? why not? ? in our enthusiasm.