Olivetti
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Olivetti
(established 1908)
For much of its history the Olivetti company has embraced the highest aesthetic standards throughout its corporate activities: architecture, interiors, advertising, graphics, corporate identity, as well as its manufactured products—office and computing equipment and office furniture. It has also played a prominent part in the sponsorship of major exhibitions, has been the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and developed an enlightened corporate social welfare policy. In 1974 the success of the company's corporate identity policy was recognized by the American Institute of Architects. It awarded Olivetti its Industrial Arts Medal ‘for a history of excellence in communicating its image through product design, corporate communications, architecturally distinguished manufacturing and merchandising facilities, and sponsorship of numerous social, educational, recreational, and cultural programmes for both its employees and the public at large’.
The company was founded by Camillo Olivetti in Ivrea in northern Italy in 1908, commencing production with his MI typewriter in 1910. However, it was not until the 1920s that the company began to modernize its business and production methods, following an extended visit to the United States in 1925 by Camillo's son, Adriano. The latter was to play a key role in developing a coherent corporate identity policy, commencing with the establishment of an advertising office in 1928. Following Adriano's appointment as general manager in 1933, a number of leading architects and designers were brought in to develop the Modernist aesthetic that was to pervade all of the company's activities. These ranged from advertising and publicity to the design of office equipment, factory buildings, and housing for its employees. Amongst this first wave of notable designers employed to project the progressive face of Olivetti was the Swiss-born Bauhaus graduate Alexander (‘Xanti’) Schawinsky, who was involved with graphic and product design for Olivetti from 1933 to 1936. He was joined by Marcello Nizzoli, a graphic and exhibition designer, who became the company's chief design consultant in 1936, the same year in which the artist and graphic designer Giovanni Pintori joined the company. Both Nizzoli and Pintori worked on architectural, product, and publicity design, the latter field also being one in which the graphic design company Studio Boggeri played a significant shaping role. The Rationalist architects Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini underlined the progressive image of the company in their design of Olivetti housing and factory buildings in 1939. Products from this period included the Studio 42 typewriter of 1935 by Schawinsky, Figini, and Pollini and the MC 4S Summa calculator of 1940 by Marcello Nizzoli. In the post-Second World War era the company boosted its overseas markets by opening in the United States in 1946, commencing with a sales outlet in New York and further consolidated with the establishment of the Olivetti Corporation of America, also in New York, in 1950. In 1959 Olivetti also acquired a 30 per cent interest in the Underwood Company in the USA, collaborating in research, development, and production of office equipment. Olivetti's commitment to high-quality design continued to evolve alongside an enlightened social welfare policies for its employees. The rounded, sculptural appearance of Nizzoli's Lexicon 80 typewriter of 1948 was very much in tune with a widespread contemporary interest in organic form that could be found in other noted Italian designs such as Pininfarina's Cisitalia Berlinetta of 1946 or Gio Ponti's La Pavoni coffee machine of 1949. Similar tendencies could also be seen in the work of Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen in the United States, illustrated in Domus. Nizzoli's lightweight Lettera 22 typewriter of 1950 attracted considerable attention and was included in the 1952 Olivetti Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Taking over from Nizzoli, Ettore Sottsass was appointed as Olivetti's chief design consultant in 1958 and attracted attention for the clearly articulated design of the Elea 9003, the company's first mainframe computer. A number of typewriters followed including the Praxis 48 typewriter of 1964 (with Hans von Klier) and the bright red Valentine portable of 1969 (with Perry King, see King-Miranda Associati). Mario Bellini, another leading figure in Italian design, executed many designs for Olivetti from the 1960s to the 1980s, including the striking orange Divisumma 18 calculator of 1972 with soft keyboard and the Praxis 35 typewriter of 1980. Radical designer Michele de Lucchi, who had been appointed as a design consultant to Olivetti in 1979, became head of the design department in 1992, concentrating on the design of electronic products and computers such as the Filos 33 notebook of 1993 and the Echos 20 laptop of 1995. Olivetti was also noted for its office furniture design, prominent examples of which included the Arcos office furniture system designed by BBPR in 1960, the innovative Synthesis 45 system of the 1970s by Ettore Sottsass and the Ephesos system of 1992 by Antonio Citterio. As well as through the commissioning of buildings by notable architects, Olivetti pursued its commitment to a coherent, design-rich ethos by commissioning leading companies and designers to fashion its interiors. For example, the BBPR design studio designed the company's offices in New York in 1954, Carlo Scarpa the Olivetti showroom in Venice in 1957, and Gae Aulenti the Paris offices in the following decade. From 1969 onwards Olivetti's corporate identity was developed further by the Czech graphic and product designer Hans von Klier, working with Perry King and C. Castelli. During the 1970s, like many other manufacturers, Olivetti experienced financial difficulties but, under the new management of Carlo De Benedetti in 1978, recovered in the following decade with research collaborations with the American company AT&T commencing in 1983. In 1998 the Archivio Storico Olivetti (Olivetti Historical Archive) was opened in Ivrea, providing ample evidence of its corporate commitment to high standards of design, cultural projection, social welfare, and education for much of the 20th century.
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | information technology |
| Founded | Ivrea, Italy 1908 |
| Founder(s) | Camillo Olivetti |
| Headquarters | Ivrea, Italy |
| Area served | Europe South America |
| Key people | Francesco Forlenza Chairman Patrizia Grieco CEO |
| Products |
personal computers computer peripherals hardware |
| Employees | 1,570 (2005) |
| Parent | Telecom Italia |
| Website | http://www.olivetti.it |
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.
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Founding
The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti. Olivetti opened its first overseas manufacturing plant in 1930, and its Divisumma electric calculator was launched in 1948. Olivetti produced Italy's first electronic computer, the transistorised Elea 9003, in 1959, and purchased the Underwood Typewriter Company that year. In 1964 the company sold its electronics division to the American company General Electric. It continued to develop new computing products on its own; one of these was Programma 101, the first commercially-produced personal computer.
Design
Olivetti was famous for the attention it gave to design:
[A] preoccupation with design developed into a comprehensive corporate philosophy, which embraced everything from the shape of a space bar to the color scheme for an advertising poster.—Jonathan Martin, International Directory of Company Histories
In 1952, the Museum of Modern Art held an exhibit titled "Olivetti: Design in Industry"; today, many Olivetti products are still 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.[1] Olivetti was also renowned for the caliber of the architects it engaged to design its factories and offices, including Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Gae Aulenti, Egon Eiermann, Figini-Pollini, Ignazio Gardella, BBPR, and many others.[2]
From the 1940s to the 1960s, Olivetti industrial design was led by Marcello Nizzoli, responsible for the Lexicon 80 (1948) and the portable Lettera 22 (1950). Later, Mario Bellini and Ettore Sottsass directed design.[3] 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 Valentine portable typewriter (1969), and others. Michele De Lucchi designed the Art Jet 10 inkjet printer (1999) (winner of the Compasso d'Oro) and the Gioconda calculator (2001).[4] During the 1970s Olivetti manufactured and sold two ranges of minicomputers. The 'A' series started with the typewriter-sized A4 through to the large A8, and the desk-sized DE500 and DE700 series. George Sowden worked for Olivetti from 1970 until 1990, and designed their first desktop computer, Olivetti L1, in 1978 (following ergonomic research lasting two years). In 1991, Sowden won the prestigious ADI Compasso d'Oro Award for the design of the Olivetti fax OFX420.
Olivetti paid attention to more than the importance of product design; graphic and architectural design were also considered pivotal to the company. Giovanni Pintori was hired by Adriano Olivetti in 1936 to work in the publicity department. Pintori was the creator of the Olivetti logo and many promotional posters used to advertise the company and its products.
Computers
Between 1955 and 1964 Olivetti developed some of the first transistorized mainframe computer systems, such as the Elea 9003. Although 40 large commercial 9003 and over 100 smaller 6001 scientific machines were completed and leased to customers to 1964, low sales, loss of two key managers and financial instability caused Olivetti to withdraw from the field in 1964.
In 1965 Olivetti released the Programma 101, considered the first commercial desktop personal computer. It was saved from the sale of the computer division to GE thanks to an employee, Gastone Garziera, who spent successive nights changing the internal categorization of the product from "computer" to "calculator", so leaving the small team in Olivetti and creating some awkward situations in the office, since that space was now owned by GE.[5]
Olivetti's first modern personal computer, the Olivetti M20, featuring a Zilog Z8000 CPU, was released in 1982. In 1983 Olivetti introduced the M24, a clone of the IBM PC using DOS and the Intel 8086 processor (at 8 MHz) instead of the Intel 8088 used by IBM (at 4.77 MHz). The M24 was sold in North America as the AT&T 6300. Olivetti also manufactured the AT&T 6300 Plus, which could run both DOS and Unix.[6]
In 1985 the company acquired a controlling share in the British computer manufacturer Acorn Computers Ltd; a third partner was Thomson SA. Olivetti sold the Thomson MO6 and Acorn BBC Master Compact with brand names Olivetti Prodest PC128 and PC128s respectively.
In 1990, Olivetti had its own distribution network in New Zealand through Essentially Software Ltd.[7] (owned by Gary McNabb) located at Mt. Eden in Auckland and Wellington, where an Olivetti M300-100 16MHz PCs with 80386SX CPU were sold for NZ$7395 and used as graphical work station for design houses using CorelDraw as graphical program. The New Zealand distribution stopped in 1991 when Olivetti could not supply their PCs.
The Olivetti M24 was a successful product and became a reference in Europe. However, as Intel moved on to the faster Intel 386 CPU, Olivetti failed to deliver reliable new products based on the new processor.
Olivetti also sold quasi-portable 8086/8088-based PCs with an integrated keyboard and one or two integrated 3.5" floppy disk drives, running DOS 3.27, an Olivetti OEM version of PC-DOS 3.20 with minor improvements.
End of computer production
Olivetti did attempt to recover its position by introducing the Envision in 1995,[8] a full multimedia PC, to be used in the living room; this project was a failure, and it might have been too advanced for its time.[citation needed] Packard Bell managed to successfully introduce a similar product in the U.S. but only some years later.[citation needed] The main problem of the company was its inability to conjugate innovation with the quality standards it had committed itself to, at a time when the margins on the PC market were diminishing as not only the market but also the number of PC clone producers grew.[citation needed] The company continued to develop personal computers until it sold its PC business in 1997.
End of Olivetti as a separate company
In the 1990's, Olivetti's computer businesses were in great difficulty, reportedly because of the competition from US vendors. It was on the brink of collapse and had needed government support to stay afloat. A company in transition, it had moved out of the typewriter business into personal computers before embracing telecoms between 1997 and 1999. In the process it had lost around three-quarters of its staff.
In 1999, The Luxembourg-based company Bell S.A. acquired a controlling stake in Olivetti, but sold it to a consortium including the Pirelli and Benetton groups two years later. Olivetti then launched a hostile bid for Telecom Italia in February 1999, despite being less than a seventh of the size of its target. In a take-over battle against Deutsche Telekom, and other potential bidders, Olivetti won out and controlled 52.12% of former monopoly Telecom Italia, Italy's #1 fixed-line and mobile phone operator. However, the ownership structure of the merged Olivetti / Telecom Italia was complex and multi-layered with Olivetti took on around $16 billion of extra debt. It was then referred to as the "Olivetti/Telecom Italia affair" because of the unpleasant secret affairs behind.
A 2003 reorganization turned the tables, however, and now Olivetti is the office equipment and systems services subsidiary of Telecom Italia. In 2003 Olivetti was absorbed into the Telecom Italia group, maintaining a separate identity as Olivetti Tecnost.
Rebirth and resumption of computer production
In 2005, Telecom Italia decided to re-launch the company in the information technology sector, investing €200 million; at first restoring the original Olivetti brand, then replacing it with Olivetti Tecnost in 2003. In 2007, Olivetti launched the "LINEA_OFFICE", designed by Jasper Morrison for Olivetti; a new line of PCs, notebooks, printers, fax machines and calculators. Olivetti today operates in Italy and Switzerland, and has sales associates in 83 countries. Research and development are located in Agliè, Arnad, Carsoli, and Scarmagno in Italy, and Yverdon, Switzerland.
In March 2011 Olivetti began producing the OliPad - its first ever tablet computer, featuring a ten-inch screen, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth connectivity, Nvidia Tegra 2, Android 2.2.2, and a 1024 x 600 display. It also features an Application Store, with apps specifically designed by Olivetti for 'business & government'.[9]
References
- ^ Woodham, Jonathan (1997). Twentieth Century Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 160. ISBN 0-19-284204-8.
- ^ Nathan H. Shapira, Renzo Zorzi, Design Process: Olivetti 1908-1978, catalogue of a show at the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery of UCLA, 1979.
- ^ Walker, John. (1992) "Olivetti". Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945, 3rd. ed.
- ^ "History & Culture Photo Archive". telecomitalia.it. Telecom Italia. Archived from the original on 2008-04-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20080407183610/http://www.storiaolivetti.telecomitalia.it/uk/cgi-bin/Societa/archivio_foto_prodotti.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- ^ "Programma 101 Memory of the Future / Quando Olivetti Inventò il PC". History Channel. June 26, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkqdbz1R_s.
- ^ "InfoWorld - Google Boeken". Books.google.com. 1986-12-01. http://books.google.com/books?id=ejwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
- ^ Essentially Software article
- ^ "Olivetti Envision". Ultimate Console Database. http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/golden/olivetti_envision.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
- ^ "Olivetti launches OliPad tablet, second coming of the typewriter?". http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/06/olivetti-launches-olipad-tablet-second-coming-of-the-typewriter/. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
External links
- Official website
- History of Olivetti at Telecom Italia (archived 2005)
- Picture of a 1983 office featuring an Olivetti M24
- "Olivetti Poster, a work of art". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74508/poster-olivetti-lexikon/. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
- "History of Olivetti" - SEQ Corporation, Stockholm, Sweden
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A Dictionary of Modern Design. Copyright © 2004, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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