"We have to do things well and make it known." Adriano Olivetti used this motto to express how, in addition to striving for excellence in every area of its activities, a business should also know how to communicate its values and build an image that is the true expression of the company. This was the seed of what everyone knows as ‘Olivetti style’: a race for excellence, a unique way of representing a company that is a symbol of the history of Italian industry.
This is the story behind the exhibition ‘The Story of Olivetti: Architecture, Products, Communication’ at WEGIL in Rome from April 12 to May 7. A variety of photographs, posters and digital storytelling that create the exhibition tour sponsored by the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, Museimpresa, World Design Organization, Cappelli Identity Design, BiblHub Sapienza, OlivettiPerTutti, Federturismo and Confindustria Canavese.
Divided into several thematic sections, the exhibition features a selection of iconic design products, the most avant-garde communication campaigns and a special focus on the Olivetti architectural designs in Ivrea, highlighting the excellence of ‘Olivetti Style,’ as a true ambassador of Italian production.
The exhibition highlights the excellence of ‘Olivetti Style,’ as a true ambassador of Italian production
The beauty of form communicates reality and is thus a core value of the company. Aesthetic choices, in all areas of activity, are considered as important as choices in technology or management. Beauty has in fact been the mechanism that has conditioned and influenced all Olivetti's paths, reflected in products, architecture, communication and branding that has become a universal heritage known not only in Italy, but around the world.
Not only beauty, however. Design, which plays a central role in the Ivrea-based company, is called upon to devise not only a “pretty dress” for a new car, but must also give meaning and justification to every form from a communication, functional, and ergonomic point of view. The forms have to be able to communicate immediately the function of the product; facilitate its use. The superfluous is discarded, making way for the expression of the technological character of the product through forms consistent with the style and values of its time.
The company founded by Camillo Olivetti is also driven by ‘Human Centricity,’ a fundamental value underlying commitment in favor of territory and Community, which is manifested in the implementation of cutting-edge welfare policies and a winning approach in research for the creation of truly innovative products.
The Olivetti model of corporate social responsibility is a long-standing experience that can be translated today into active forms of entrepreneurship, and indeed it all means creating opportunities to learn about the history of a territory and to engage in dialog with historical sources of whatever type they may be (documentary, oral, visual, digital) in order to design the future.
The Olivetti model of corporate social responsibility is a long-standing experience that can be translated today into active forms of entrepreneurship
Vision of the future, research and creative freedom, intelligence that innovates, social conscience, openness to the world, form and technology, and culture of change are part of Olivetti's DNA but can be considered a common good in a universal path of innovation and vision.