Alberto Alessi spoke from the head of the long table dominating his office in Crusinallo, Italy, while looking out at his little garden. The 63-year-old native of Arona, Italy, and managing director of Alessi Spa, one of the world’s premier design firms, sat in a chair owned by his grandfather, doodling with an Aldo Rossi pen produced by his company, while he talked to us by phone.

Alessi, key speaker at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s “Shaping the New Century: A Two-Day Design Symposium,” joined the family business in 1970 and began an overhaul of the company. He collaborated with artists, and always worked with a personal manifesto: “Offer the masses veritable artistic items at low prices.” Take the alien-like lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck or the Anna G. corkscrew by Alessandro Medini. Both are simple, beautiful curios.

“Alessi is a merchant of happiness, of joy,” said Alessi, about himself. “In that sense, design can improve daily life, because it can bring a little joy, a little increased quality in aesthetic terms, and a little humor in simple and ordinary things.”

When did you fall in love with design?

It was the end of the 1960s. The company actually started in the 1950s. I was starting at university, and I.was starting law because of a compromise with my father. But my true passion was art and design, so at the same time I started meeting people in this area.

You transformed your family’s upscale homewares company into something more avant-garde than utilitarian. Was.this embraced by your family?

Well, it actually took a little time to persuade the rest of the family that Alessi was an example of the phenomenon of the Italian design factories, and that we should continue to build our strategy of “art mediator” in the design field… I feel that my activity as an artistic mediator in product design is not very different from a museum director or even a filmmaker — putting together and organizing talents in different fields to get to a result… To do this, we make use of some qualities that are more and more rare in industrial culture today, such as sensibility, intuition and the desire to accept a bit more risk.

I imagine when you started working with plastic, it was considered a risk. Yet the material lends itself to playful and inexpensive innovations. You must consider that foray quite a success?

Yes, it was an important move, not only in terms of business, but also in terms of design history. We discovered new, talented Italian designers (like Giovannoni, Venturini, Mirri, Giacon) and the so-called “Ludic language” in design that shaped the 1990s.

Is a particular region of Europe leading the way when it comes to design?

I must distinguish between the nationality of designers and of companies. From the first side, today, Italy seems a bit weak while the U.K. and Holland look very interesting. From the side of the companies, I have to say that Italian design factories continue to express the best worldwide design.

Where does America fit into this? Are we a design leader or follower?

America has been an extremely important design-leading country, particularly… in the 1940s to the 1960s, when in Europe the design sensibility was not so developed. The reason why it disappeared is probably because industrial culture in America went very much into the area of mass production, and started being dominated by marketing.

Why do you embrace failure?

I always say that I’m very proud of my “fiascos.” The reason is that they are the only way to actually see where the borderline is. The borderline is the line separating the area of possible from the area of not possible. We believe so much in dancing on the borderline that the rest of the family starts to be concerned if in one year I do not practice at least one fiasco. It would mean that we are losing our leading position in design excellence.

Does interacting with new creative types every year energize you?

It is nice to deal with them, because they think in a different way to other people… It is refreshing, opening your eyes and your spirit. It’s a good reason to wake up every morning!

Shaping a New Century: A Two-Day International Design Symposium

What: Meet leading European designers, critics, scholars, manufacturers, dealers and others as they gather for an examination of design in four sessions, covering the creation, manufacture, judgment and marketing of design objects and products.

When: Friday and Saturday, March 6-7

Where: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road.

Tickets: Two-day pass $100, $50 for students; one-day pass $50, $25 for students. Register online or by phone.

Info: (317) 923-1331 or www.imamuseum.org/calendar/europ...