Friday, April 8, 2011

The Olivetti Typewriter

In 1911 Olivetti produced Italy's first typewriter. One hundred years later we continue to celebrate the Olivetti typewriter and the designers who smartly promoted them. Why can't more companies embrace design on this level? Bring back the poster!

1953 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Raymond Savignac.
1952 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Giovanni Pintori.


1950 Olivetti Lexikon 80 poster by Giovanni Pintori.
1957 Olivetti booklet cover designed by Giovanni Pintori.
1969 Olivetti Valentine poster by Ettore Sottsass.
1973 Olivetti poster by Walter Ballmer.

1964 Olivetti poster by Walter Ballmer.



1953 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Paul Rand.
1952 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Paul Rand.
1953 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Egidio Bonfante.
1962 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Giovanni Pintori.
1950 Olivetti poster , unknown.
1912 poster for the first Olivetti M1 typewriter, by Teodoro Wolf Ferrari
and featuring Italian poet Alighieri Dante at the typewriter.

:: See far more Olivetti images at SFMOMA and on ninonbooks photostream.

3 comments:

  1. We all committed to writing have nostalgic memories of old typewriters. I had an Olivetti, but I wished I had another one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Raymond Savignac is my favourite, I love self referential images. And the hat! Great stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leo Leonni was a brilliant artist, illustrator, sculptor, photographer,
    who, among other notable works, designed the famous cover of "The Family of Man", pub. in 1955. He also did some great Olivetti ads in the mid-fifties (in the Lettera 22 days).
    He wrote a wonderful, rich autobiography called "Between Worlds" (Knopf 1997). Well worth reading!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.