The CEDIT Ceramiche d’Italia brand has been synonymous for over fifty years
with ground-breaking experimentation in the design and technology of ceramic
coverings. An outstanding design and corporate brand, over the years CEDIT has
successfully developed a unique focus on the process of design and the Italian
manufacturing tradition, with inputs from the leading names in architecture, art and
design (mainly Italian) and providing an example of how the values of the creative
avantgarde and the capability for invention can combine with the flavour of skilled
craftsmanship and the very latest industrial technology, in a positive combination
always focused on guaranteeing product excellence.
The company’s history began in 1947, when CEDIL Ceramica di Lurago d’Erba
S.p.A. was founded with the aim of manufacturing white-body ceramic wall tiles
with uniform colour, constant working size and the ability to maintain flatness, even
further improved by the quality of the glazes used and their resistance to crazing and
acid attack.
From then onward, the successful association of crafted quality and product
durability became one of the company’s strong points, and as early as 1948 it
installed a pilot plant with an American-built tunnel kiln for firing the ceramic tile body.
The first tiles in 15x15 cm size were followed during the Fifties by smaller-sized tiles
– 7.5x15 cm and 10.8x10.8 cm – while the groundwork for the production of large
tile sizes was carried out and, simultaneously, work was conducted on the poetics of
decoration, conceived as a genuine artistic revelation and the key to a new approach
to home design.
CEDIL’s research into the use of ornamental signs applied to ceramic surfaces
received strong encouragement from the first line designed by famous graphic artist
Albe Steiner, followed by a long sequence of creative associations which gave the
brand and its product a highly original, distinctive identity, with a clearly defined visual
style that quickly gained recognition even beyond Italy’s borders; the company’s first
appearances at fairs and exhibitions in and around Milan were the preamble for an
intensive export trade, focusing in particular on Germany and Switzerland, Argentina,
Venezuela, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
From the small tile sizes of the Fifties to the gradually larger and larger sizes
of later periods, the company engaged in a production adventure which responded
to - and in many cases kept ahead of - the experimental decorative languages of
modernity, actually shaping the taste of purchasers and industry professionals.
Rather than mere decoration applied to the tile, graphics became a visual vector,
ARCHEOLOGIE
CEDIT: le ceramiche d’Italia che hanno fatto storia | CEDIT: Italian ceramic tiles that have shaped history
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