Brand Spotlight - Episode 9: ICF

ICF was established in Milan, Italy in the 1950s, and was known for its passion and research right from the start: they belong to that group of companies that, at the time, were making a significant contribution to creating and establishing the concept of Italian design.

In 1958, the ICF factory at Vimodrone was founded and began to produce Herman Miller furniture for Italy. In a few years, they produced the entire collection. This was how American design came to Milan.

Their product offer has always been decisively innovative: they were the first in Italy to produce partition walls (Programma Interparete, 1965) or walls and panel systems for open spaces (Brick System, 1970, 1982/3). A trend of product innovation has marked their past, and continues to be evident in their present.

ICF believes in design and research as corporate values and not just as purely formal facts. They are convinced that creativeness can be achieved continuously working on every detail, solving technical and production problems. 

In addition to its many successes, ICF was awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award in 1981, the Innovation award in 2003.

ICF is accustomed to using very different materials for production: die-cast and extruded aluminium, wood and laminate, leather, textiles and upholsteries. Over the years, they have gained experience in managing the production chain. ICF creates pieces that must carry out their function without deteriorating, because high quality guarantees full satisfaction to the customer and allows the company to go ahead regularly with its projects. 

Quality means accurate control over each phase, from reception of the goods, which will be handled by production departments to packaging and delivering. This is a vital concept for their organisation, because they believe that the only way to guarantee absolute quality in the final product is to monitor each step closely.

ICF’s production procedure guarantees a high level of flexibility and an extraordinary ability to adapt to the requests of both the customer and the market. Thanks to this new concept, they can provide a high level solution to any production need.