Zanussi - History of Industrial Design Zanussi

History of Industrial Design Zanussi

In 1916 Antonio Zanussi founded his company, Officina Fumisteria Antonio Zanussi, based in Pordenone . In 1933 the brand-name REX was adopted.

In 1946 following the war and after the death of Antonio Zanussi, his son Lino succeeded him. The entrepreneurial attitude, vision and passion of a product brought Lino Zanussi, in 1954, to call Gino Valle as a consultant for the design of products. Gino Valle who had already worked for years with the company for the design of factories and office buildings, then assumed the role as an external consultant for the design of their products.

His philosophy could be summed up in the design of the appliance as a fundamental and integral part of the kitchen. Zanussi products were already known internationally for their high degree of innovation and quality, and designed by Gino Valle helped them to be appreciated even more. He was responsible, among many, for the design of the first washing machine produced at Zanussi, the model “Rex 201”, which in 1958 marked the debut of the company in the production of washing machines (licensed Westinghouse). Only two years later, Rex was born with the automatic “Model 260”, designed and manufactured by Zanussi. Then, the design of the compact kitchen unit “UNIREX” was designed in which one single large appliance had more functions, from the conservation to the cooking phase.

Gino Valle also designed the first television products produced by Zanussi. One of these in particular, shows it was already clear from those years of innovative research that the model was equipped with a wire remote control. This was in 1956. In 1958 Valle called Gastone Zanello from his architect’s studio Avon, based in Udine.

Zanello was given the internal responsibility of the Zanussi Industrial Design until 1981 when he went to Seleco (Zanussi brand for electronics) as Head of Design. The company A.Zanussi Industries was one of the first to join the ADI (Italian Industrial Design Association) and by ADI in 1962 it received its first recognition in quality level: the kitchen, 700 series was awarded the Compasso d’Oro in 1962. Not long after, in 1967, came the second Compasso d’Oro, with the famous P.5 compact washing machine and this appliance remained in production for almost twenty years. Gastone Zanello introduced the concepts of dimensional and aesthetic coordination between the products. "Coordinata 67" was the name of the project that involved the design and production of not only Zanussi technology for the appliances but also for cabinets, bases, wall cabinets and columns to form the entire kitchen environment.

The project remained on paper and at a prototype stage, but it allowed Zanussi to deal competently with the growing market for Built-In appliances.

In 1976 the internal Industrial Design Studio was flanked by the contribution of the Studio Andries Van Onck. The company Zanussi was suffering from an overcrowding of brands, due to its subsequent acquisitions, and in fact, during the Sixties and Seventies, the company absorbed important industries( Becchi, Stice, Castor, Zoppas, Triplex) and founded the Zanussi Group. With the joint work of Studio Van Onck and Zanussi, Industrial Design was responsible for the creation of the so-called “Family Lines”, an element of order and at the same time distinguishing it among the many brands of the group. In collaboration with the Studio Van Onck, studies were made of the possibilities of typological and topological dashboards, the creation of basic rules for using the product graphics, expressed in designing families of symbols, use of lettering and use of color.

From 1982, Roberto Pezzetta was responsible for internal Zanussi Industrial Design. He and his staff had the task of carrying forward the great tradition of Zanussi Design.

In 1984 the Swedish multinational Electrolux acquired control of the company; the Industrial Design Office became one of the three major Design Centers that the Electrolux Group had in the world: Stockholm, Pordenone and Columbus (Ohio-U.S.). Above all, the size of its initial composition had changed, as Electrolux was a group that was characterized by a big dimension in the world, with 37 brands, 40 factories and 15 million units produced. The horizon then expanded; the complexity became the main element to manage. In this case one of the largest contributions came from the joint work between design and marketing to create the Family Lines of the Electrolux Group, a task facilitated by the work done previously by Zanussi.

In terms of creating new models, the amount of work to manage the new complexity did not preclude Roberto Pezzetta and his staff from "inventing", in 1986, the first totally hidden dishwasher and other innovations both from a formal and conceptual point of view . In 1987 Zanussi presented "The Wizard's Collection" designed by Pezzetta and the Zanussi Industrial Design Center and was selected at the Compasso d’Oro in 1987 and 1989. The family of refrigerators “Wizard” was a real small revolution in the so-called white appliances, the refrigerator was the revival of the object intended as the main character with its own form and color. The following year, it was joined by the completely black “Wizard” cooktops and ovens. From then on there were countless stories of success in the Industrial Design Zanussi, among other things, the creation of a set of "new characters": the prototypes “Zoe” (washing machine invented in 1989), “Teo” (electric cooker), and “Oz” refrigerator manufactured in 1998. “Input” was the electronic washing machine studied for the intuitive usability of the dashboard, while “Amie” was a washing machine designed especially for such users as the elderly, visually impaired and blind people.

In the following years the design efforts of the Zanussi Industrial Design Center focused particularly on Built-In appliances, shown by the series of ovens and dishwashers Softech with the front surface of tempered glass deformed in three dimensions, in which case the color became a fundamental characteristic of the range. In 2000 two new products, the washing machine “IZ” (named “Jetsy”- Rex in Italy) and Rex hit series “QUADRO” for Built-in, both also awarded the GOOD DESIGN Award of Chicago (among other prizes). "IZZI" in 2002, was the dishwasher from the latest green technology as part of the so-called free-standing equipment.

Then, the great tradition of designing Zanussi appliances for the kitchen environment continued with the "H-Boxes" series, a complete set of equipment aggregated in structural stainless steel.

Meanwhile, the Zanussi Industrial Design Center, led by Pezzetta for two decades from 1982 to 2002, became Electrolux European Design Center based in Pordenone and Roberto Pezzetta ended the Zanussi cycle assuming the role of Creative Design Director of Electrolux Group (2002–2005).