Marco Zanuso, Zanuso 31, Zanuso 31 Alfa, Zanuso 31 Beta, 1968

intensity to interiors and establishing new potentials in the relationship between

floors, pavings and wall coverings.

The commitment to expanding the production range led to the exploration of

a series of options, culminating, in 1954, in the design, production and marketing

of custom-designed ceramic pieces, such as the iconic “SZ1” series styled by the

architects Marco Zanuso and Alberto Scarzella, featuring original curved geometric

forms allowing the single elements to be combined in a large number of different

ways; modularity of tile sets and decorative motifs became part of the brand’s

vocabulary, and henceforward it was to be one of its most distinctive original traits.

In 1955 CEDIL took over Ceramiche Dester S.p.A. to create CEDIS Ceramiche di

Sicilia s.n.c., with its headquarters in the Tommaso Natale district of Palermo, where a

new plant was built to Marco Zanuso’s design.

At the end of the Fifties the new group - CEDIL/CEDIS - had more than 300

employees, providing a production capacity of 2,200 m

2

/day of floor and wall tiles;

these two companies were then united to form CEDIT S.p.A., visually identified by the

new logo designed by Albe Steiner.

In the Sixties, as well as taking over more companies (Ceramiche Trinacria

of Messina and Italceramica of Bareggio), CEDIT officially confirmed the strategy,

already included in its corporate policy, of launching a series of partnerships with

the top designers of the time. The brand’s intention was to establish a creative

dialogue between production and design, and between the product’s technical-

formal and aesthetic qualities, by cultivating a constant focus on the evolution of its

language, in terms of both technology and visual experimentation, with the overall

aim of reactivating, in a modern key, the dialogue between designer, maker and user

integral to the craft production process.

CEDIT can be credited with exercising a sensitivity and farsightedness that

were consolidated over time, thanks in part to inspired ideas completely new to the

ceramics industry, first and foremost, the creation of the “Piastrella d’Oro” award in

association with the ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale [Industrial Design

Association], which brought together and selected the best Italian ceramics industry

design in production from 1961 to 1966. This award gave young designers the

chance to gain direct experience of the world of business, and allowed criteria of

experimentation and creativity to become part of the logic of production.

In 1968 the company introduced an absolute novelty into the ceramics industry

by creating a new sample collection which combined traditional decorations with

CHIMERA

CEDIT: le ceramiche d’Italia che hanno fatto storia | CEDIT: Italian ceramic tiles that have shaped history

20 | 21