Engineering:Olivetti Valentine

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Short description: Italian typewriter introduced in 1969
Olivetti Valentine
Olivetti-Valentine.jpg
The Olivetti Valentine, designed by
Ettore Sottsass with Perry A. King and Albert Leclerc
TypePortable typewriter
Inception1969
ManufacturerOlivetti S.p.A.
Notes
ABS plastic body and case;
weight 5kg
W 34cm, H 10cm, D 36cm (typewriter without case)[1]

The Olivetti Valetine is a portable, manual typewriter manufactured and marketed by the Italian company, Olivetti, that combined the company's Lettera 32 internal typewriter mechanicals with signature red, glossy plastic bodywork and matching plastic case. Introduced in 1969 and designed in 1968 by Olivetti's Austrian-born consultant, Ettore Sottsass (father of the Memphis Group),[2] assisted by Perry A. King[3] and Albert Leclerc,[4][5][6] it was the world's first plastic-bodied typewriter — using injection-molded ABS.[2]

Despite being an expensive, functionally limited and somewhat technically mediocre product which failed to find success in the marketplace,[7][4][8] the Valentine subverted the status quo of typewriter design,[9] captured the zeitgeist of post-’68 counterculture[10] and ultimately became a celebrated international icon[8] — largely on account of its expressive design.

The Valentine is featured in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York;[11][12] London's Design Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum;[8] as well as the Triennale di Milano in Milan.[13] Italy's Association of Industrial Design (ADI) awarded the Valentine its Compasso d'Oro in 1970.[14]

Poet Giovanni Giudici, who was employed with Olivetti, described the Valentine as "a Lettera 32 disguised as a sixties girl."[15] Over time, Sottsass himself, who called the Valentine the oggetto rosso, the red object,[5] would tire of its design, calling it "too obvious, a bit like a girl wearing a very short skirt and too much make-up."[16][4]

Design and history

Olivetti Valentine (front view)
Olivetti Valentine (with case)

Olivetti originally conceived the Valentine as a response to the early 1960s flood of inexpensive pragmatically-designed manual typewriters from Japan[17] — e.g., from Brother and Silver Seiko.

Believing design should not merely be functional but also sensual and emotionally appealing,[18] Sottsass prototyped his ideas in Moplen (it) (an early trademarked polypropylene),[9] proposing a very basic but boldly-colored and highly affordable design: eliminating lower case letters, exposing its ribbon caps and forgoing a bell for the right hand margin. Sottsass lavished cost-effective and attentive details throughout the design, going so far as to carefully resolve in sketch studies, the negative space around each carriage end.[17]

At a time when most typewriter cases featured elaborate zippers and bulky suitcase designs, Sottsass proposed an inexpensive injection-molded, color-matched plastic sleeve with softly rounded corners and a textured-finish, that could mate to the typewriter's plastic bodywork[19] — the rear 'plate' of the typewriter becoming the top of the case, locking onto the typewriter itself via two black rubber straps/tabs on opposite ends of the case[8] thus allowing the Valentine to be carried like a briefcase.[2] The case could likewise serve as a trash can or light duty stool when the typewriter was in use.[19] Art historian Deborah Goldberg said expending so much attention on the typewriter case was radical.[10]

Olivetti resisted,[11] pushing for more features — and pushing for what would ultimately be a relatively expensive typewriter. Olivetti insisted on more expensive color-impregnated, impact-resistant ABS plastic rather than the protype's Moplen,[20] as well as both upper and lower case capability — and the right margin bell. Following these disagreements and after having largely completed the design as well as its launch advertising campaign,[2] Sottsass distanced himself from the project. His colleagues, British designer Perry King with Canadian Albert Leclerc, completed the work.[19]

The Valentine was formally introduced on Valentine's Day 1969[10] — to a largely unreceptive market.[8] Production took place initially in Italy, then later in Spain and Mexico.[19] At introduction in the United States the Valentine retailed for $259,[21] when a Royal Mercury metal bodied ultra-portable retailed for $49. While Olivetti had projected sales in the millions, the Valentine managed sales in the few tens of thousands; it was initially retired and only returned to production by popular demand.[20]

The design itself was surprising and non-conformist, largely deconstructing what would typically be the typewriter's bodywork, revealing elements normally concealed, using 'floating keys' and a body-colored plastic 'rail' ahead of the spacebar, visually detached from the typewriter's main body. Sottsass cited the orange nipples and pink breasts in Tom Wesselmann’s paintings of nudes as inspiration for the Valentine's orange ribbon caps. He chose the bright red color to emphasize casual creativity rather than the serious monotony of office work,[11] anticipating the trend toward a less formal workplace.

Production Changes:
A later Valentine example, highlighted with some of the more prominent changes, made over the course of production: enlarged orange ribbon spool covers, dimples to mitigate scuffing and tab key with tab function on Valentine S models.

Sottsass's changing opinion:
Also, over the course of time, Sottsass himself would come to view the Valentine differently: "I worked sixty years of my life, and it seems the only thing I did is this fucking red machine. And it came out a mistake. It was supposed to be a very inexpensive portable, to sell in the market like [a disposable pen]... then the people at Olivetti said you cannot sell this."[10]
Sottsass, 1993

Details included black plastic keys and white lettering; orange plastic ribbon spool caps, silver metal return arm and paper guide; twin chrome, rabbit-ear style paper supports; black rubber feet; red plastic swing handle at back of typewriter, as well as integral raised "Valentine" lettering along the front — and "olivetti" at the rear plate. At introduction, the user manual was printed on a set of small "tags" held together with a loop of string, with cheeky phrasing describing the main functions, accompanied by simple black and white illustrations.[20] The typewriter itself weighed 5kg, with dimensions of W 34cm, H 10cm, D 36cm.[1]

Over the course of production, design revisions included enlarging the orange ribbon caps, and adding two prominent dimples at the top of the bodywork, to help prevent scuffing when removing the typewriter or returning it to its case.[19] Tab functionality was later added to Valentine S models, operated by a contrasting red key on the right side of the keyboard.

Though often called la rossa portatile (the red portable), the Valentine was also subsequently manufactured in very small numbers in white, blue and green, respectively for Italy, France and Germany.[15]

Notably, the Valentine shared numerous features — including its bold red color, floating black keys, and ABS typewriter body with a pronounced rear 'plate' that mated to a plastic sleeve case — with the Monpti typewriter, designed by Stefan Lengyel in 1968 (the same year the Valentine was designed) for Zbrojovka Brno NP in Vyškov, Czechia — manufacturer of Consul typewriters.[22][23] Furthermore, industrial designer Carl Wilhelm Sundberg (Netherlands, 1910-1982), working for Sperry Rand Corporation, patented a plastic-bodied typewriter in 1963 without specifying ABS for the company's forthcoming, red typewriter, the Remington Starfire.[24]

Advertising

Sottsass wanted the Valentine to have its own distinct image, that would "prevail over the global image of Olivetti."[5] Together, they committed to creating the market for the Valentine, prioritizing the demographic that might appreciate the typewriter's design statement as a leisure item,[25] as much if not more than its mechanical specification.[15] It would appeal to "young people or people with a youthful sensibility, open to the appeal of the new and fashionable,"[5] the advertisements for the Valentine portraying "a desire to be creative and take risks."[26]

Olivetti conducted extensive market research. In Olivetti's marketing statement at the Valentine's introduction, Sottsass noted:

"Since they asked us to think about designing the ad(s) for this product as well, we tried to do something that represented and explained these ideas, and we went to put the Valentine in as many places as possible to see how it behaved and what was happening around it and we took a lot of photographs."[5]
"So after a while we came into possession of a large documentation, a sort of reportage of the journey made among people by an object instead of a person, and it didn't even go that bad, because everyone was quite happy to play with this Valentine and to be together with her and for the rest she too, this red object, ended up blending in quite well with the things that already exist in the world, the natural things and the artificial things that make this great confusion in which we live."[5]

The launch advertising ultimately used a range of graphic artists: Sottsass himself[15] along with Roberto Pieraccini,[27] Walter Ballmer (it), Egidio Bonfante (it),[28] Tadaaki Kanasashi,[26][29] Tesro Itoh,[26] Yoshitaro Isaka, George Leavitt,[30] Graziella Marchi,[31] Adrianus Van Der Elst[32] — and Milton Glaser,[2] playing off the painting The Death of Procris (circa 1495) by Piero di Cosimo,[26] depicted the Valentine in a renaissance setting with a dog, suggesting that "it, too, was man’s best friend."[4][33]

Launch advertising positioned the Valentine as a mass consumer product that anyone could use anywhere.[15] Large posters were posted on city streets, in subways and railway; radio spots announced its arrival along with advertisements in popular magazines. Olivetti also commissioned a series of short, avant garde video advertising spots (available on Youtube) to be played before movies, during the previews,[15] including Woman with cigar (Donna con il sigaro), Write From the Heart, Woman in Space (Donna nello spazio), Young Japanese (Adolescente giapponese), Boy with Motorcycle (Ragazzo con la moto), Young Hippies (Giovani hippies), Flipper and The Red Portable (La portatile rossa).

At Olivetti's 1969 presentation of the Valentine, Sottsass announced "the laptop, today, becomes an object that one carries with him as one carries a jacket, shoes, hat — the things that we pay attention to — and yet don't pay attention to."[15]

In popular culture

Brigitte Bardot was photographed with a Valentine;[1] in 1970 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were photographed at Heathrow Airport carrying a Valentine;[34] and the Valentine was used by the main character in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971).[2] Braun-Designer Dieter Rams owned a Valentine.[35][36] It appeared in the 2007 film Les Témoins (The Witnesses).[37]

In 1999, in its home town of Ivrea, the Olivetti Historical Archive mounted an exhibition honoring the 30th Anniversary of the Valentine, titlaed Rosso, Rosso Valentine, subsequently replicated in Milan, Prague, Budapest, Genoa and Turin.[6]

In 2016, David Bowie's Valentine typewriter sold at an auction at Sotheby's in London for £45,000 (US $57,000), despite a presale estimate of £300–£500.[38][39][40]

In 2017, Peter Olivetti, great grandson of Camillo Olivetti, founder of the Olivetti corporation, created a tribute to the Valentine — as a bicycle — using the 100th anniversary Cento tubeset created by the Italian company, Columbus — featuring details recalling the typewriter: the color, the three small dots of color recalling the typewriters ribbon selection, and an orange dot on the pump recalling the iconic ribbon caps.[41]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Joakim Flisberg (December 8, 2023). "Olivetti Valentine En italiensk designikon". Franksgarage.se. https://www.franksgarage.se/skrivmaskiner/olivetti/olivetti-valentine/. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Rosario Spagnolello (May 28, 2020). "Valentine, Italy’s Iconic Ruby Red Typewriter". Elle Decor. https://www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a32701120/olivetti-valentine-history/. 
  3. ↑ "Ettore Sottsass Jr. and Perry King" (in en-US). https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/ettore-sottsass-jr-and-perry-king/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 David Hayes. "Olivetti Valentine: The Macintosh of the ’60s". DavidHayes.ca. https://davidhayes.ca/2016/05/olivetti-valentine-macintosh-60s/. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Antonio Moro (December 27, 2007). "La Olivetti Valentine di Ettore Sottsass (translated from Italian)". Medium.com. https://itomi-medium-com.translate.goog/la-olivetti-valentine-di-ettore-sottsass-e059cb31607?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true/. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Valentine: design and graphics for a cult product". Storiaolivet/. https://web-archive-org.translate.goog/web/20160304190935/http://www.storiaolivetti.it/percorso.asp?idPercorso=636&_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp. 
  7. ↑ "How Ettore Sottsass made the typewriter sexy". Phaidon.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20220118010656/https://de.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2016/september/14/how-ettore-sottsass-made-the-typewriter-sexy/. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "Valentine". Victoria and Albert Museum. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O146042/valentine-typewriter-sottsass-ettore/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Olivetti Valentine, Ettore Sottsass, Perry King, Olivetti 1968". Domusweb.it. p. 014/019 (gallery view). https://www.domusweb.it/en/design/gallery/2021/05/06/the-essentials-20-unmissable-typewriters.html. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Amber Snider (February 20, 2020). "How the Radical, Rebellious Valentine Typewriter Was Labeled a Mistake". The Culture Trip. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/how-the-radical-rebellious-valentine-typewriter-was-labeled-a-mistake. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Valentine Portable Typewriter". Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/739409. 
  12. ↑ "Ettore Sottsass, Perry King. Valentine Portable Typewriter. 1968". https://www.moma.org/collection/works/4576. 
  13. ↑ "Valentine; Macchina per scrivere; Ettore Sottsass jr., Perry A. King; Olivetti" (in it). https://archivi.triennale.org/risultati-archivio?archiveId=collezioni&freeText=valenti. 
  14. ↑ Spagnolello, Rosario (2020-05-21). "Valentine, la Rossa Portatile più glamour d’Italia" (in it-IT). https://www.elledecor.com/it/design/a32609340/olivetti-valentine-storia/. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 "Valentine: design and graphics for a cult product". Storiaolivetti.it (Olivetti Historical Archive). https://www.storiaolivetti.it/articolo/93-valentine-design-e-grafica-per-un-prodotto-cult/. 
  16. ↑ Jonathan Glancey (April 15, 2015). "Design Icons: Why everyone loves the Valentine (video, 3:23)". BBC. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150415-be-my-valentine. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Adam Richardson. "Olivetti Valentine Typewriter". Mass Made Soul. https://www.massmadesoul.com/features/valentine. 
  18. ↑ Greg Fudacz. "Olivetti Valentine Concept". Antikeychop.com. https://www.antikeychop.com/olivetti-valentine. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 Greg Fudacz. "Valentine 1969-1973 Olivetti SpA Ivrea, Italy". Antikeychop.com. https://www.antikeychop.com/olivetti-valentine. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "La Olivetti Valentine di Ettore Sottsass". whatisepic.it. July 15, 2022. https://www.whatisepic.it/olivetti-valentine/. 
  21. ↑ Anne Gilbert (October 21, 2017). "Antiques Detective". Lancaster Farming, page B26. https://www.newspapers.com/image/897167996/?terms=olivetti%20valentine%20typewriter&match=1. 
  22. ↑ "OLIVETTI VALENTINE". History of Industrial Design. https://historia-disenio-industrial.blogspot.com/2013/12/olivettivalentine.html. 
  23. ↑ Messenger. "The Monpti My Little Disasters". ETcetera No. 117, Summer 2017. https://etconline.org/backissues/ETC117.pdf. 
  24. ↑ Greg Fudacz. "Remington Starfire (1963-1969)". Antikeychop.com. https://www.antikeychop.com/starfire. 
  25. ↑ Bernice Harrison (February 10, 2018). "Design Moment: Valentine Typewriter, 1969". Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/design-moment-valentine-typewriter-1969-1.3384597. 
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Sunny Cheung (September 7, 2023). "My Dear Valentine: How Olivetti’s Artful Advertising Imbued Machines with Desire". M+ Museum, Hong Kong. https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/olivettis-valentine-typewriter-the-apple-of-its-time/. 
  27. ↑ "Olivetti, 110 anni per guardare avanti | Foto" (in it-IT). 20 February 2018. https://living.corriere.it/design/eventi/gallery/olivetti-110-anni-per-guardare-avanti/. 
  28. ↑ Ron Kovach (May 27, 2009). "Olivetti manual typewriter". Design Applause. http://designapplause.com/editors-pick/featured/olivetti-manual-typewriter/5164/. 
  29. ↑ "Study and love; Poster; ca. 1975 (printed)". https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74510/study-and-love-poster-kanasashi-tadaaki/. 
  30. ↑ "Rosso, rosso Valentine". Storiaolivetti.it (Olivetti Historical Archive). https://www-archiviostoricolivetti-it.translate.goog/news/rosso-rosso-valentine-2/?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp. 
  31. ↑ "Olivetti’s Valentine: The Apple of Its Time | M+" (in en-US). https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/olivettis-valentine-typewriter-the-apple-of-its-time/. 
  32. ↑ "Olivetti, modello Valentine, 1969-1989" (in it). https://www.imprese.san.beniculturali.it/web/imprese/gallery/dettaglio-oggetto-digitale?pid=san.dl.SAN:IMG-01375872&titolo_origine=Galleria%20multimediale&css_tit=gallery-result-tit. 
  33. ↑ "Storia della Valentine di Olivetti, la macchina da scrivere portatile rosso fiammante" (in it-IT). 11 February 2021. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/it/lifestyle/design/a35456172/valentine-olivetti-storia/. 
  34. ↑ Johanna Agerman (October 7, 2009). "Valentine Typewriter by Adriano Olivetti". Icon. https://www.iconeye.com/back-issues/valentine-typewriter. 
  35. ↑ "Dieter Rams, Ein Mann räumt auf". Die Zeit. October 10, 2022. https://www.zeit.de/lebensart/2010-10/braun-dieter-rams/seite-2. 
  36. ↑ "Spotted in Rams (2018): Dieter Rams uses a Olivetti Valentine". https://typewriterspotting.tumblr.com/tagged/Olivetti%20Valentine. 
  37. ↑ Paula Benson (February 9, 2016). "Glossy, sexy and desirable – an original Olivetti ‘Valentine’ typewriter makes a perfect gift for your lover". Film and Furniture. https://filmandfurniture.com/2016/02/the-perfect-valentines-gift-a-valentine-typewriter/. 
  38. ↑ Robert Messenger (December 6, 2016). "David Bowie's Olivetti Valentine Typewriter Sells For $A74,263". Oztypewriter. https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2016/12/david-bowies-olivetti-valentine.html. 
  39. ↑ Gleadell, Colin (2016-11-15). "David Bowie auction: Sale of late artist's personal collection puts iconic Memphis Group on the map" (in en-GB). The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/art/david-bowie-auction-sale-of-late-artists-personal-collection-put/. 
  40. ↑ Muñoz-Alonso, Lorena (2016-11-03). "Discover the Hidden Gems of the 'Bowie/Collector' Sale" (in en-US). https://news.artnet.com/market/memphis-bowie-collector-sale-sothebys-london-730169. 
  41. ↑ "A LOVE LETTER TO HISTORY An Olivetti Valentine Like You’ve Never Seen Before". Sram.com. https://www.sram.com/en/life/stories/olivetti-valentine-force-axs. 

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