My mother was a writer, and even if she hadn't been I still may well have had an Olivetti Lettera Tipo 32 in the household, but there is some special significance.
I am predisposed to having an affliction to all things Italian, and there is no greater signal to an individual such as my good self, when the appeal of an article like a typewriter is strong. A type writer in my home would have absolutely no use other than as an aesthetic, and even then, there are other tenants that would possibly (probably) object.
No matter, Marcello Nizzoli is credited with the design of the Lettera 22 & 32, the earliest incarnations of the Lettera serie. My personal favourite is the Lettera venti-cinque, a veritable feast of seventies sharp-edged design. So rapidly those styles went out of fashion, but a mere 30 years passes and all of a sudden these designs look fresh again. Testament to the world-class, brilliant and unmatchable Italians.
Like a manual SLR camera, the typewriter has faded into obscurity as an appliance. Superseded by electric typewriters first, then electronic word processors and then ofcourse the personal computer.
Cest la vie they say, but couldn't the good people at Olivetti lend their heritage to designing attractive computers?
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