Olivetti, founded in 1908, has changed its logo. With a new color scheme, the Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones and other hi-tech products aims to emphasize the fact that “Olivetti” stands for the “Made in Italy” products.
Olivetti crucially influenced the design in the 20th century, especially in industry and communications. As early as 1950s, the company’s design of typewriters and calculators, developed by Marcello Nizzoli, was so innovative that the Museum of Modern Art in New York held an exhibit entitled “Olivetti: Design in Industry”.
Later, the products, created by Ettore Sottsass, such as the Valentine typewriter, formed the brand’s profile. Sottsass also transformed bulky and unaesthetic devices into easily comprehensible and attractive objects. Even in the first generation of iMac with bright colors, we can see the design tradition launched by Olivetti in the post-war Europe.
As for Olivetti’s new logo, it was created to express the company’s aspiration to improve people’s life through technologies. Compared to the previous logotype, the emblem changed only the color palette as the big “O” turned green and the lowercased wordmark “olivetti” in the brand’s traditional typeface, designed by the Swiss graphic artist Walter Ballmer in 1970, was colored in red. The color gamma corresponds with the colors of the Italian flag that, according to the company, symbolizes Olivetti’s ambitions towards the digitalization of the Italian industry as well as the firm’s collaboration with governmental institutions in this field.
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