Olivetti Posters

I am a big fan of the Olivetti posters. When I was in school I did an in depth report on Olivetti, which I didn’t know anything about beforehand. I was a little OCD about collecting images, but the posters were all so good, it was hard to just pick a few. An interesting thing to google – In 1955, Olivetti mounted one of their typewriters on a stand outside their New York Showroom on 5th Avenue and people lined up to try it out. A hidden camera was set up by Life photographer Michael Rougier and he took pictures of people typing short messages.

In looking at the power point I did for school I would like to share the last paragraph of it, and also encourage those who are not familiar with Olivetti to check it out.

“A typewriter company looked at their product and saw beauty in something that was well designed. They carried it through in everything they did. They hired Bauhaus Designers, Architects and Painters to define Olivetti’s Image with it’s logo, posters, interiors, office furniture, architecture and more. In 1952 the Museum of Modern Art in New York acknowledged Olivetti’s achievement in bringing beauty to the workplace by giving the Italian Company the sort of one man show that is usually the privilege of painters.”