ettore sottsass

Valentine portable typewriter (red)

Valentine portable typewriter, 1968. Photo by Alberto Fioravanti. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

 

series of editorials on prominent designers

the name ettore sottsass is commonly associated with the valentine typewriter and certain pieces of office furniture in whose design he had a hand.

his real genius goes far beyond design, however. sottsass was in a literal sense the great italian’s own creation, a made object that feels and tells us how it wishes us to relate to it.

Ettore Sottsass, wearing goggles, exhales smoke

19

17

born in Innsbruck, Austria

39

Young Ettore Sottsass reads a newspaper smoking a cigarette