MARCELLO NIZZOLI

Marcello Nizzoli, designer of the telephone, was involved in various avant garde movements, a skilled painter, graphic artist, architect, industrial designer and exhibit architect. The son of the founder of the Olivetti Company Adriano Olivetti was enamored by the Modern Movement graphic style and hired a Bauhaus graduate Xanti Schawinsky and was introduced to his peers including Nizzoli. Nizzoli became one of the instruments through which Olivetti was able to combine industrial design and the plastic arts to create new designs for their existing line of office products. These new designs appealed to a wider market than the established users and consumers of office products. Their sculptured forms were sought as solutions and devices for small businesses and domestic use. The telephone was manufactured by SAFNAT, Italy in 1958.