It all started with a box of sketchbooks.
FATHER & SON
MINALE is the work of two designers, a generation apart.
My father, Marcello Minale, was one of the most respected designers of his generation - an Italian who spent his life shaping the things around him, from brand identities to furniture, and who designed alongside Achille Castiglioni for Zanotta. His work now sits in the V&A.
I'm an architect, and spent years at Foster + Partners and Richard Rogers before founding Buster + Punch - a brand obsessed with metal, detail, and the way a thing is actually made. MINALE is where it all comes together: my father's eye, and everything I've learned about turning a sketch into an object built to last.
His ideas. My craft.
THE SKETCHBOOKS
We lost our father when we were young. For years his sketchbooks sat in a box, unopened. When I finally went through them, I found page after page of pencil sketches and technical scribbles — lamps, chairs, objects, drawn in the 1960s and 70s and never made. Some were just a few quick lines: a silhouette, a mechanism, an idea caught in pencil and never resolved.
These sketchbooks are the whole of MINALE. Everything we make begins on one of these pages, in my father's own hand.
ONE BY ONE
My work begins where his pencil stopped. He gave me the spark, a rough idea on a page, and I imagine what it can become. I take each sketch and reimagine it: resolving the form, applying precise engineering, and building it to perform for modern living.
One by one, we're bringing these forgotten icons back — reimagined, re-engineered, and finally given the life they never had. We tell each story as we go: the original drawing, the year he made it, and how I designed it into what it is today. We call it the Sketchbook Series.
WHAT SEPARATES US
A heritage no one can copy. Every MINALE piece begins in a real design archive - my father's sketchbooks and an aesthetic that is uniquely our own.
Designed and made by us. Never licensed, never outsourced. Because we control the making, we can work directly with architects and designers on bespoke finishes for their projects.
Small-batch and direct. We work with specialist makers and buy our materials in bulk, keeping the range tight so the value reaches you, not a middleman.
Built to be kept. Metal, brass, leather and stone, made to last with duties paid within Europe and the UK.
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY
This is a family business in the most literal sense — my brothers and me, with our father's hand in everything we make. We're releasing his designs one by one, and we'd love you to be part of it.
To follow along, sign up at the foot of the page - we'll send each new release, and the story behind it, as it lands.