Olivetti was founded in 1908. Starting in the 1960s, it really took on design as a strategic differentiator. (This extended beyond products to graphic design and architecture, even to the city of Ivrea itself where Olivetti was based.) It hired some of the best designers in the world, including Ettore Sottsass, Perry King, and Mario Bellini, among many others.

The delightful green key caps of the Praxis 48 typewriter, designed by Sottsass in 1964, are like a field of fresh grass for your fingers to play on.

Central to Olivetti’s philosophy — and also to the designers that it hired — was that technology needed to be humanistic, not domineering. Even in an office product, there should be touches of joy that enliven everyday tasks. This was especially important at that point in history, as people were questioning the rigidity of the traditional workplace (especially gender roles) in a context of social upheaval and transformation.

For example, the delightful green key caps of the Praxis 48 typewriter, designed by Sottsass in 1964, are like a field of fresh grass for your fingers to play on. Google’s wireless earphones and Pixel 2 phones also have small splashes of color that give them lively, even playful, personalities.

Google Pixel 2 with colorful power buttons

These details bring a welcome relief to the ponderously serious design we see from many other companies, Apple most notably, where there doesn’t seem to be much fun in the design process. It comes through in the resulting products.

(I like what Google is doing with the main surface colors too — subtle but sophisticated tones that offset the bright small touch points beautifully. In the case of the Pixel 2, color is the saving grace to what is otherwise a fairly prosaic overall design.)