CEDIT:

ITALIAN CERAMIC

TILES THAT HAVE

SHAPED HISTORY

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 15 x 15 cm size were followed during the Fifties by smaller-sized

tiles - 7.5 x 15 cm and 10.8 x 10.8 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,

RILIEVI

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

18 | 19