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The project:
Lettera 22

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The Project

The Project

Lettera 22

Designed by Giuseppe Beccio and Marcello Nizzoli, this model replaces the MP1, but with many innovations.

The keyboard is incorporated into the bodywork, as is the roller, of which only the knob protrudes; the footprint of the spacing lever is also minimal, to best meet the requirements of portability and limited space.

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Sketch by Marcello Nizzoli for Lettera 22
Sketch by Marcello Nizzoli for Lettera 22
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The machine, which measures 8.3 x 29.8 x 32.4 cm, immediately gives an impression of lightness and agility, although the weight, having to guarantee robustness and quality performance, is not indifferent (3.7 kg).

A case with a handle facilitates transportation.

Performance is excellent, thanks to the precision of the printing hammers and the kinematics designed to make pressing the keys lighter and more agile.

The keyboard has some limitations, due to the need to keep the size down (for example, there is no key with the number 1, which is obtained by using the lowercase letter elle), but the machine offers some functions (e.g. automatic change of direction of the movement of the inked ribbon when it reaches the end; return key; tabulation key; possibility of writing in red or black or even without ink to prepare matrices for mimeograph printing, etc.) that do not make one regret the much bulkier professional machines.

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Lettera 22 in the pink-colored body version
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Chapter 02
Origins of the name
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Origins of the name

Origins of the name

Contrary to the practice of favouring allophony, for the new typewriter destined to replace the historic Portatile Fortini adopted an Italian name, borrowed from the common lexicon and completely transparent: thus was born the Lettera 22 (1950), whose driving force was such that it imposed itself on all markets. It was, on the other hand, a machine designed to enter into the habits of the Italians and an overly fancy name would have altered its identity.

Taken from “E. Papa: Olivetti dalla macchina al logos”.

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“Lettera 22, a typewriter in our homes”

1950

“Its place is in everyday life, in the family and on the road; necessary for the professional and the student, the lady and the tradesman; as universal as the telephone, the radio, the watch.”

1950

Close to the typology of speaking names (Portable, Studio), the name Lettera 22 is also function-oriented, as the advertisements of the time emphasised:

“Lettera 22, a typewriter in our homes”

1950

“Olivetti Lettera 22 […] bears in its name, with the quality of its origin, its destination.”

1950

However, we are also dealing with an evocative name: underground, the idea that had inspired the choice of Lexikon, “the name of dictionaries, where all the words that the typewriter, in potential, contains, are collected’, continues to work”.

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Advertising poster for Lettera 22, Giovanni Pintori
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Advertising poster for Lettera 22, Giovanni Pintori

“With vowels and consonants you make words, with words you make thoughts, with thoughts you think letters, with Lettera 22 you write.”

1950

“Family letters, presentation letters, business letters, greeting letters, sales letters, confidential letters, love letters, circular letters, leave of absence letters, thank-you letters… all in beautiful letters, all with the Olivetti Lettera 22.”

1950

Abroad, the new laptop took on different names: the Hispano-Olivetti adopted Pluma 22, itself a polysemic voice, with the value of “feather” and “pen”, and a double reference to lightness and writing, while in the United Kingdom Lettera 22 became simply Scribe, “scribe” (with allusion to the helpful machine) but also “writer”.

Chapter 03
Lettera 22

The machine: Lettera22

Lettera 22

Success was immediate and over the course of the 1950s involved more and more categories of users even outside the office.
Illustrious writers and journalists, including Montanelli e Biagi, made Lettera 22 an inseparable travelling companion, which they would not give up even with the arrival of electronic writing.

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Entering the permanent collections of the MoMA – Museum of Modern Art di New York and awarded the Compasso d’Oro in 1954, Lettera 22 was chosen (1959) by the Illinois Technology Institute as the best product in terms of design in the last 100 years.

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Golden Compass Award to Lettera 22
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Olivetti's products

Sales of Lettera 22 were supported by an affordable price (42,000 lire, in the 1950s roughly equal to one month’s workers’ pay) and lively advertising campaigns.

The Lettera 22 became, together with products such as Piaggio’s Vespa (released in 1946) and the Fiat 600 (1955) and 500 (1957), one of the symbols of a changing and modernising Italy.

DRAG

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The Lettera 22 was produced in different colours:

First series (round keys): beige, embossed beige, light blue, green, pink.

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Second series (square keys): blue, yellow-green, pink.

Chapter 04
Places of production
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Places of production

Places of production

Production, initially located in the Aglié plant (inauguration July 1955), not far from Ivrea, was later taken to the Hispano Olivetti and British Olivetti factories (probably also Mexico and Brazil after the 1960s. On some machines on the back is the Made in …).

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Remaining on the market until the mid-1960s, it reached an annual production peak of over.

200,000 units

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From 1950 until the mid-1960s, a total of approx. (probably not taking into account South American production numbers)

2,000,000 units

(probably not taking South American production numbers into account).

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Chapter 05
The advertising
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The advertising

The advertising

In the 1950s, Olivetti devoted special attention to advertising campaigns for the Lettera 22. The new laptop model, revolutionary, light and solid, with a hitherto unknown flattened shape, is destined for the mass market. Olivetti wanted to make it an instrument of everyone’s daily life.

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So the advertising must raise awareness among potential customers, emphasise the cultural value of the object, an intelligent gift that makes the recipient happy and qualifies the donor, a useful tool, easy to use, to take with you wherever you go.

The images are strongly centred on the figure of the product, but are often accompanied by a text (e.g. ‘light as a syllable, complete as a sentence’) that accentuates certain connotations of the machine.

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The posters are signed by great masters of advertising graphics: Nizzoli, Pintori, Savignac and intellectuals and writers such as Franco Fortini and Giovanni Giudici collaborate on the texts.

Often the Christmas holidays become the occasion for campaigns that propose Lettera 22 as an ideal gift. Giovanni Pintori designed posters with letters piled up on a wheelbarrow to form a Christmas tree; Lettera 22 silhouettes accompanied by bouquets of flowers to create a sense of gift-giving…

School is also a recurring theme: Lettera 22 is proposed as a valuable tool for the student, a gift that serves as an incentive or a reward for achievements.

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