Design Process: Olivetti 1908-1978

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Nathan H. Shapira

Renzo Zorzi

Olivetti, Ivrea, Italy, 1979, English

Design, General

Catalogue published in conjunction with a 1978 Los Angeles University gallery exhibition celebrating the first 70 years of creation by the renowned Italian Design firm of Olivetti. It provides copious chronological documentation of the firm’s projects in all fields including the typewriters, office machinery and industrial design; graphics and advertising, typeface design, and the creation of their worldwide offices and plants by a who’s who of 20th-century architecture. Among the artists, architects, and designers whose work is featured here are Franco Albini, Gae Aulenti, Walter Ballmer, Franco Bassi, Mario Bellini, Carlo De Benedetti, Luigi Figini & Gino Pollini, Jean-Michel Folon, Jorge Fuentes, Roberto Gabetti & Aimaro Isola, Ignazio Gardella, Louis Kahn, Perry A. King, Le Corbusier, Leo Lionni, Vico Magistretti, Richard Meier, George Nelson, Marcello Nizzoli, Camillo, Adriani and Roberto Olivetti, Geno Prampolini, Carlo Scarpa, Giorgio Soavi, Ettore Sottsass Jr., James Stirling, Kenzo Tange, and Marco Zanuso.

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David Kelley

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This book opened my mind to great European design. Olivetti, who designed my favorite typewriter, the Olivetti Valentine, by Ettore Sottsass, was a bigger deal in the early 20th century than Apple is today.

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