Collection: Giulio Iacchetti
Giulio Iacchetti was born in 1966 in Castelleone in the province of Cremona. He attended the Architecture School in Milan for two years before abandoning it in 1987 for his military service. He resumed his studies in Industrial Design at the Lombardy Region Professional Training School in Crema, where he graduated in 1990. His thesis project for a handle design was put into production by Frascio in Lavenone. He resumed his university studies in 2004, enrolling in the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage programme at the Ravenna branch of the University of Bologna, where he obtained his degree in 2008.
A significant professional event for Iacchetti event was his encounter with Matteo Ragni, with whom he designed the multipurpose biodegradable Moscardino cutlery for Pandora Design in 2000. It was awarded the Compasso d'Oro and became part of the MoMA permanent collection in New York. Thus began his intense activity as a designer that saw him collaborate with such prestigious design brands as Abet Laminati, Alessi, Artemide, Fontana Arte, Foscarini, Ifi, Magis, and Pandora design. He is the art director of Ceramica Globo, Coccio Design, Dnd, Myhome and Danese Milano. For the latter, he designed numerous objects, including the Medhelan cement paperweight, the Secondo piano hand-rest, the Tau flip-flop jewel, the Sula ceramic carafe, and the Lingotto rubber ice-former. Particularly fruitful is his collaboration with iB rubinetterie, which has produced a rich collection of taps and mixers under his creative direction. For Sambonet, he designed the Duetto and Elba cutlery and, for Alessi, the Uselen letter opener and the Noè wine collection.
In 2009, he was awarded the Premio dei Premi (Prize of Prizes) for Innovation by the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, for his Eureka Coop project, realised for Coop Italia, bringing design into mass retail. That same year, the Milan Triennale hosted a solo exhibition of his work entitled 'Giulio Iacchetti. Disobedient Objects'. His attention to the relationship between craft and design led him to conceive Internoitaliano in 2012. The project was developed as a "diffuse factory" - a system for producing and selling furnishing objects formed by a network of artisan workshops and quality manufacturing companies with which he designed and produced furniture and accessories inspired by Italian living and working styles. At the same time, his personal research explored the theme of the cross, which gave rise to the 'Cruciale' exhibition held at the Museo Diocesano in Milan, the Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome and the Castello di Lombardia in Enna.
In 2014 he won his second Compasso d'Oro for the Sfera series of manhole covers, designed with Matteo Ragni for Montini. That same year, 'Surf-o-Morph', realised with surfer and designer Francesco Aldo Fiorentino, was presented at Fuori Salone in Milan. The project explores the combination of design and sport, translated into the creation of high-performance surfboards, whose lines recall the silhouettes of an orca, a dolphin and a shark. The project was awarded an 'Honourable Mention' by the ADI Compasso D'Oro International Award in 2017 during the edition having the theme of "Sport-performance and Innovation.
