Collection: Elio Martinelli

Elio Martinelli (Lucca 1922 - 2004) was a designer, interior architect and entrepreneur, one of the most important and representative figures of Made in Italy values. While not trained in architecture or industrial design, Martinelli founded a company specialising in the production of lighting fixtures. It became one of the top Italian design brands, inextricably linked to some of the most celebrated style icons. Creative and gifted in drawing and painting, Martinelli chose to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, where he graduated in set design in 1947. His first experiences saw him divide his time between his family's fixture shop in the centre of Lucca and his work as an interior architect. In 1950, he took over the management of the shop from his recently-deceased father and, at the same time, opened a workshop for the production of lighting fixtures. The atelier, located in the basement, hosted the first daring experiments of the young designer, determined to project Martinelli Luce into the top echelon of design.

His masters included Walter Gropius, from whom he absorbed functionalism, and Scandinavian designers Arne Jacobsen and Tapio Wirkkala, who intrigued him with their ability to simplify forms while infusing warmth and expressiveness into the final products. His first glass creations - like Poliedro (1962), or the Bolla ceiling lamp (1965), still in the catalogue today - revolved around the concept of modularity. However, the designer soon turned to a new material that promised infinite expressive possibilities. Plastic entered the lighting world with the KD6 lamp by Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, marketed in 1959 by Kartell. Elio Martinelli did not hesitate for one moment and rapidly installed machinery for moulding opaline methacrylate. The costly investment rewarded the courage of the designer-entrepreneur, who entered the creative frenzy made possible by the material. His iconic lamps followed a narrative thread linked to nature - Serpente (1965), Cobra (1968), Foglia and Flex (1969).

The year 1966 can be considered a turning point; that was when the Martinelli Luce artisan workshop became the company it is today, thanks to its participation in the Eurodomus exhibition in Genoa, sponsored by Gio Ponti. Since then, Martinelli Luce has taken part in important international trade fairs and collaborated with promising designers who have enriched the company's catalogue. One of the most important names is Gae Aulenti, who designed the famous Pipistrello and Ruspa lamps for Martinelli Luce. Elio Martinelli continued his business and creative work until his death in 2004. His legacy is still present in the company's catalogue, with poetic and evocative interior fixtures like Gomito (1974), Elmetto (1976), Le Rondini (1984), or technical systems like Out (1884) or Polo (1986). In his later years, he often designed products with his daughter Emiliana, who now runs the company. Their work resulted in such collections as L'amica (1990), Bubbles (2003) and Duemilatre (2003).