Founded in 1985, by Adrian Olabuenaga and Lesley Bailey his wife. Their first product collection was a limited edition series of jewelry designed by Peter Shire, a member of the famous Memphis group. Later, with the help of Barbara Radice & designer/architect Ettore Sottsass, ACME's new collection (Memphis Designers for ACME), was a huge collection of jewelry over a hundred works, with 14 designers and architects, including Andrea Branzi, Aldo Cibic, Michele De Lucchi, Ettore Sottsass, Matteo Thun, etc.  This collection debuted at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum 1986, along with the last stop for the MEMPHIS touring show, before returning to Italy .

This was followed by many collections; such as “Architects for ACME” (curated by Phillip Johnson), “Artists for ACME” (curated by Billy Al Bengston), “Alchimia for ACME” (curated by Alessandro Mendini), “ACME Collection” (curated by Rod Dyer), “Hispanic Artists for ACME” (curated by Carlos Almaraz), working with many designers from different backgrounds and specializations, achieving success and gaining new status in the design industry.

After that, ACME developed into different products like wrist watches, men's accessories, leather goods, etc. ACME also completed an architectural work, where Ettore Sottsass designed CASA Maui for Adrian and Lesley in Maui , Hawaii . In recent years, ACME has continually created new collections and developed new technologies to produce writing tools, driving new possibilities for designs in this area.