Olivetti Electronic Typewriters

Olivetti, from past to present. The company Olivetti was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in Ivrea, near Turin in 1908, by Camillo Olivetti and was mainly run by his son Adriano Olivetti. Olivetti is an Italian manufacturer of printers, computers and other common business machines, but is widely known for producing the first electric computer.

Electric typewriters weren't widely produced until after 1930. However, by 1960 over three million Olivetti typewriters had been sold around the world. If there was to be a world renowned typewriter it would be the Olivetti Valentine, a design by Ettore Sottsass. This space-age machine, was built in 1970, and can be found in many collections of industrial design. Mechanically, the machine is no different, fundamentally that is, from the average machine that was built half a century earlier, with few exceptions.

The Valentine was the iPod of its day, a brilliantly packaged and seductively desirable machine designed to change conventional assumptions about what a typewriter might be. It was packaged in a vibrant red plastic carrying case. The case was not an afterthought, rather an integral part of the concept, turning a piece of office equipment into a fashion accessory.

Today, Olivetti is the only Western company still producing manual typewriters. As well as its counter-part the electric typewriter, which in today's fast paced world is a necessity. The Olivetti typewriter may not have been one of the first ever produced, but the company still has its flare and is going strong in the business and computer world!