Olivetti S.p.A.
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Ing. C. Olivetti & Co., SpA. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.
In 1952, the New York Museum of Modern Art put on the show Olivetti: Design in Industry and many Olivetti products remain part of the museum's permanent collection. Another major show, mounted by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1969, toured five other cities.<ref>Jonathan M. Woodham, Twentieth Century Design, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0192842048. p. 160 and passim</ref> Olivetti was also well-known for the caliber of the architects it engaged to design its factories and offices, including Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Gae Aulenti, and many others.
From the 1940s to the 60s, Olivetti industrial design was led by Marcello Nizzoli, responsible for the Lexicon 80 (1948) and the iconic portable Lettera 22 (1950). Later, Mario Bellini and Ettore Sottsass directed design. Bellini designed the Programma 101 (1965), Divisumma 18 (1973) and Logos 68 (1973) calculators and the TCV-250 video display terminal (1966), among others. Sottsass designed the Tekne 3 typewriter (1958), Elea 9003 computer (1959), the Praxis 48 typewriter (1964), the very famous Valentine portable typewriter (1969), and others. Michele De Lucchi designed the Art Jet 10 ink-jet printer (1999) (winner of the Compasso d'Oro) and the Gioconda calculator (2001).
