Olivetti Lettera 22 (1960)

Olivetti Lettera 22 
 
Year of production:  1960
 
Company:  Olivetti, Glasgow, Scotland
 
Serial No. 7765318
 
The Lettera 22 is a typewriter designed by Marcello Nizzoli in collaboration with the engineer Giuseppe Beccio in 1950, produced by the Olivetti company of Ivrea.
 
It represents the first example of a portable typewriter, compact, easy to transport and manageable.
 
Under the leadership of Adriano Olivetti, the 1950s marked a phase of extraordinary growth for the company of Ivrea.
 
In 1938 Marcello Nizzoli, an architect with a strong affinity for communication and equally adept at designing products as he was at drawing buildings, began a close collaboration with the designer Olivetti.
 
He was responsible for the design of many office products of great success: the Lexikon 80 (1948), the Divisumma 14 (1948), Lettera 22 (1950), the Studio 44 (1952), the Divisumma 24 (1956), Lettera 32 (1963). These models remained in production for over 15 years.
 
Olivetti became a market leader for desinging products celebrated  for their beauty of design, as well as their technical excellence.  Leading the way was their portable typewriter, the Lettera 22.
 
In 1959, a jury of 100 designers promoted by the Illinois Institute of Technology chose the Lettera 22 as the first of the 100 best design products made in the last 100 years.
 
In 1956 the prestigious Compasso d'Oro award was given for this reason: "Is attributed to the typewriter Lettera 22 as an example of optimal solution for the needs of portability related to the type of object. The aesthetic of Nizzoli is solved here in a form that enhances the concept of portability consistent with the requirements of minimum footprint ".
 
The Lettera 22, is exhibited in the permanent design collection at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York.