IV.閱讀測驗:
      Ever fashionable, the Alessi -brand has managed to transform from a metal utensil and
dish designer to fully esplore all kitchen and household options, incorporating the work of
leading designers from Philippe Stark to Michael Graves and Aldo Rossi. Throughout its
history Alessi has chosen direction based on the guidance of its designers and the
development of the product itself. The brand vision appears to be to revel in design in all
areas of life, to cnjoy and celcbrate the simplicity of everyday objects, and to take risks
whether there exists a need for risk or not. Or put simply: No man should be forced to dine
from a boring plate
      But how did Alessi acquire such a frivolously jubilant reputation?
The year was 1921, the sctting, a small town in the foothills of the ltalian Alps, the founder
Giovanni Alessi for whom the company is named was a metal expert working with a lathe to
crcate workmanlike metal utensils and dishes. The result was a family-run brand that would
continually adapt to set style in the kitchen and home using a variety of mediums from silver,
bronzc and stainless steel to porcelain, ceramic, and eventually, plastic.
      Although Giovanni was an able crafisman, it wasn't until his eldest son Carlo stepped up
to the plate in the thirties and forties that the brand began to be associated with a stylc of
design unique to the Alessi name. Carlo's playfully tlamboyant Bombe coffee and tea set is
celebrated as creating a design sensibility in Italy that can still be seen as an intluence in many
of the products today. It was these early designs that encouraged ordinary Italians to view
their kitchen as a living arthouse, where the salt and pepper shaker were more than just the
functional sum of their parts.
      Carlo's eldest son Alberto continued along the path set by la famiglia and propelled the
company into the international world of design. In the carly nineties, on the advice of his
designers, Alberto allowed the use of plastic to address a trend of :customers yearning for
joyful, playful design," as he put it. This change of direction for the brand, which prior to the
advent of plastic, was becoming an clitist symbol of yuppic aftuence, heiped Alessi to break
away from the harsh lines of the eightics and adjust to the more organic ninetics
      And it is this advice from his designers that seems to inforr: Albertos approach to
managing the brand's direction. Rather than tracking the whins and desires of the market base,
Alessi follows the suggestion of its designcrs in deciding where its next steps will be. This
approach is a boon to designers who may wish to design free Irom the contines of the
audience's voice. In this mannet: the evolution of Alessi's is such that an elegant cup and
saucer can reside next to a Mamboyantly tentacled octopus whisk.
      But for those aesthetes who worry that the brand is too accessible to the masscs, Alessi
has created a dual branding systein to distinguish between its popular price point products and
the morc cxclusive designs. 'There is the Alessi product, which is mass produced and casily
accessed through department storss, and then a system of marks for designers dedicated to
experimenting and manufaetured in limited editions. These names include Officina Alessi,
product designed solely in metal, Alessi Twergi, using only wood, and Alessi Tendentse,
which uses porcelain and crystal glass.
      Content for its produetse to be confincd to the kitchen, the Alessi name in tur aspires to
attain recognition within the design community. And the rest of the world obviously concurs
as Alessi design can be found in muscums throughout the world
【題組】39. What is most likely the author's comment on Alessi products?
(A) A symbol of household innovation
(B) Transforming industry into art
(C) A brand with long tradition
(D) Putting fiun into function