Alberto Meda is an engineer focusing on design, born in Lenno, in the Italian province of Como in 1945. He graduated with a laurea in Mechanical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1969. From 1973 he was the technical manager of Kartell, in charge of the development of projects of furniture and plastic laboratory equipments.

In 1979 he worked as a freelance industrial designer for various companies: Alfa Romeo Auto, Alias, Alessi, Arabia-Finland, Cinelli, Colombo design, Brevetti Gaggia, JcDecaux, Ideal Standard, Luceplan, Legrand, Mandarina Duck, Omron Japan, Philips, Olivetti, Vitra, etc.

Alberto Meda came to design from engineering, bringing with him a pragmatic mind, and an attention to details in materials and production process, in addition to formal concerns. This applied-science background has shaped Meda’s recognizable stamp of elegant simplicity, designs that are at once modern in form and organic in feel. It was this individual sophistication that caught the eye of Rolf Fehlbaum, the chairman of the Swiss manufacturer Vitra, who commissioned the Italian engineer to design a chair some 20 years ago. Thus began a collaboration that continues to this day, resulting in some of the most memorable seating pieces up to and including the MedaPro and the newest design, the MedaPal.