Flexform

FLEXFORM
legal form	Corporation
founding	1959
Seat	Meda , Italy
management	Galimberti family
Number of employees	135
Branch	Furniture
Website	flexform.it

Flexform is an Italian company based in Meda . The company, founded in 1959 by the Galimberti brothers, designs, manufactures and sells furnishings and accessories for home and public spaces.

history

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Galimberti family founded a craft business for armchairs and sofas. In 1959 the brothers Romeo, Pietro and Agostino Galimberti decided to rename it Flexform di Galimberti. The products were traded in the local area.

In 1967 the company became an AG and from a craft to an industrial company. She worked with Italian architects and designers, some of whom became leading exponents of Italian design. The graphic artist Pino Tovaglia took care of the brand design in 1969 . The designer Joe Colombo designed the Tube Chair at that time , which was then included in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

In the 1970s, Flexform also began exporting abroad. At the furniture fair in Cologne, contacts were made to Northern Europe. After an economic expansion throughout Europe, the second generation of the Galimberti family also exported overseas. With the arrival of the third generation in the late 1990s, the company exported to Brazil, Russia, China, the USA and the countries of the Far and Middle East. In 2001 the new Flexform Mood product collection with its international retro style was introduced, which was initially coordinated by the American designer John Hutton .

The company has remained family-owned. It consists of 135 employees and a factory with an area of ​​30,000 m². All production continues to be exclusively made in Italy in Meda.

Designer

Over the years, well-known designers and architects have been involved in the design of new products, including: Asnago-Vender, Sergio Asti, Cini Boeri, Joe Colombo, Paolo Nava, Rodolfo Bonetto, Carlo Colombo, Gigi Radice, Giulio Manzoni. For the past 40 years, the architect Antonio Citterio has coordinated the entire collection.

In 2016 the ADAGIO sofa was presented, designed by architect  Daniel Libeskind .

Prices

The ABCD armchair, designed by Antonio Citterio , received an Honorable Mention from the XXIV Compasso d'Oro ADI and was selected by the Associazione per il disegno industriale (Association of Industrial Design in Italy) for publication in the ADI Index 2015.

literature

• Mario Mastropietro, Rolando Gorla, Un'industria per il design , Ed. Lybra immagine - ISBN 88-8223-035-X
• Andrea Branzi, Design italiano, 1964-1990, Ed. Electa - ISBN 978-88-435-5375-4
• Maria Cristina Tommasini, Mario Pancera, Il design italiano: protagonisti, opere, scuole, Ed. Editorials by G. Mondadori
• Andrea Branzi , Introduzione al design italiano: una modernità incompleta , Ed. Baldini Castoldi Dalai - ISBN 9788860730718
• Giulio Castelli, Paola Antonelli, Francesca Picchi, La fabbrica del design: conversazioni con i protagonisti del design italiano, Ed. Skira
• Charlotte e Peter Fiell, 1000 Chairs, Ed. Bags - ISBN 978-88-435-5375-4
• Laura Lazzaroni, 35 years of design al Salone del Mobile, Cosmit
• Massimo Pitis con Cristina Dell'edera, Pino Tovaglia. La regola che corregge l'emozione, Edizioni Corriani
• Sergio Campo dall'Orto, Imprese eccellenti. Le aziende milanesi che non temono la crisi, Ed. Franco Angeli - ISBN 88-568-1801-9
• Jim Postell, Furniture Design, Ed. John WIley & Sons Inc. - ISBN 978-1-118-09078-7
• Giovanni Albera, Nicolas Monti, Italian modern: a design heritage - Ed. Rizzoli - ISBN 9780847810345
• Antonio Marazza, Stefania Saviolo, Lifestyle brand: Le marche che ispirano la nostra vita, Ed. Rizzoli Etas - ISBN 978-88-586-2375-6
• Alberto Bassi, Antonio Citterio: industrial designer , Ed. Electa Architecture - ISBN 9781904313366
• Bernd Polster, Claudia Neumann, Markust Schuler, Frederick Leven, The AZ of modern design , Ed. Merrell
• Pippo Ciorra, Antonio Citterio, Terry Dwan, Antonio Citterio, Terry Dwan: ten years of architecture and design - Ed. Birkhäuser Verlag - ISBN 9783764355975
• Giampiero Bosoni, Italian Design - Ed. Museum of Modern Art - ISBN 9780870707384
• Silvana Annicchiarico, Andrea Branzi, Barbara McGilvray, John Venerella, Che cosa è il design italiano? : le sette ossessioni del design italiano , Ed. Triennale Electa - ISBN 9788837059811
• Carlo Ducci, Luxury in living , Ed. Electa - ISBN 978-88-370-3489-4
• Juli Capella, Quim Larrea, Designed by architects in the 1980s, Ed. Rizzoli - ISBN 9780847809417
• Nally Bellati, New Italian design , Ed. Rizzoli - ISBN 978-0-8478-1258-5
• Mel Byars, Terence Riley, The design encyclopedia, Ed. London King - ISBN 9780870700125

Web links

Commons : Flexform  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Flexform
• PURE ELEGANCE: FLEXFORM
• MOMA THE COLLECTION: Boomerang chair
• MOMA THE COLLECTION: Tube chair

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sergio Campodall'Orto: Imprese eccellenti. Le aziende milanesi che non temono la crisi. FrancoAngeli / Milano 2009
2. ↑ Giampiero Bosoni: Italian Design . Museum of Modern Art / 2008
3. ↑ Massimo Pitis, Cristina Dell'edera: Pino Tovaglia. La regola che corregge l'emozione . Edizioni Corriani
4. ↑ Tube Chair .
5. ↑ Il Sole 24 Ore: Flexform apre otto shworoom monomarca ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Il Sole 24 Ore: Come nasce un divano
7. ↑ Adagio sofa - Libeskind. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 12, 2016 ; Retrieved July 4, 2016 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Hounorable Mention ADI for Flexform. In: Archiproducts. Retrieved June 20, 2016 (UK English).