In the name of innovation

December 1, 2017

In the latest issue of the journal Istituto dei Beni Culturali (XXV, 2017), former Olivetti executive Galileo Dallolio wrote about the seminar titled "Design e pubblicità alla Olivetti", which was organized on May 31st by the Fondazione Cirulli, the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, and Bologna's Associazione Olivettiana.it. During that seminar architects, entrepreneurs, scholars and students discussed the theme of industrial design and visual culture at Olivetti. The picture emerging from the conversation demonstrates how Adriano Olivetti's attention to industrial aesthetics pervaded every aspect of life in the factory. According to Olivetti, aesthetic categories were not only applicable to the design of objects that needed to appeal to potential customers, but also to factories: "the architect must design them on a human scale, and around that measure, with an harmonious contact with nature; because the factory is made for men, and not vice-versa".