
Google and the Resurgence of Italian Design - DanBC
https://blog.prototypr.io/google-and-the-resurgence-of-italian-design-e9234cf3d073
======
mixedbit
I wonder if we will finally go back to hardware design principles that
prioritizes functionality over look.

The Design Of Everyday Things gives examples of great designs:

* Rotary dial phones were designed in such a way that when a phone felled on the floor it not only survived, but the ongoing phone-call was not hanged. Today countless users brake their smartphones glasses and yet the mainstream smartphones to do not incorporate any design elements that would make it harder to drop the phone or that would protect the glass from the impact. Such elements would make the designs less minimal, so are discarded.

* Cars, a complex machines that can easily hurt others, traditionally have controls designed in such a way that you can enter a car model that is totally new to you and comfortably operate it within minutes. You can operate most controls without a need of looking away from the road. Today, we are ditching this proven design in favor of a single touch screen, because it looks so much more elegant and modern.

~~~
mrisoli
Smartphone design is downright terrible in terms of functionality, they might
look nice, but I've had so many phones that were very slippery and didn't
offer a firm grip as if the manufacturer says you should buy a case. And Apple
is the top offender, think antennagate, headphone jack...

That includes software, responsive design was created with the goal of
adapting websites to smaller screens, as phones got bigger I don't see many
sites utilizing responsive design so that I can still use my phone with one
hand.

Also, I loved the MagSafe charging port on the MacBook, that is an example of
great functionality on design, then Apple throws that out of the window and
makes a single port laptop.

~~~
agumonkey
The design is function of the market. People wanted magic not function so they
produced magic looking things (thin, shiny).

Now people have grown a bit, they'll ask for other values and the production
will realign.

Waves and spirals

~~~
whathaschanged
And then those people go and throw theor brand new phones right into giant
sturdy cases. Maybe it's time to ignore the voices that pretend people want
shiny when really that's what the bloggers want to crow about.

~~~
agumonkey
I don't think it's true. Some manufacturers did produce less thin phones, both
for better resistance and longer battery life. Nobody bought them. Maybe
you're right and it's the web that influences people into buying these or
maybe people just want to buy the latest and "most bestest" (whatever the
metric is, nowadays its thin and pixel density ... people are into 4K now, 8K
is coming too)

~~~
JustSomeNobody
> Nobody bought them.

Because those phones lacked many other features that people ALSO wanted.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Indeed. This was the same fallacy that killed keyboard slider phones. Sure,
their sales were poor... but the reason why is because they generally came out
8 months later than the non-keyboard version without improved hardware. So by
the time each keyboard phone generation came out, there was already newer
hardware with newer features on the market.

------
hypertexthero
The Italian peninsula has a way of inspiring people and has done so for a long
time. I was living in Italy when I became interested in graphic design, which
I then learned from Milton Glaser — who was also inspired by his time in Italy
— through his classic book, Graphic Design. Milton is still going strong at
almost 90. Here he is, drawing:
[https://vimeo.com/6986303](https://vimeo.com/6986303)

And his essay, Ten Things I Have Learned, has valuable work advice:
[https://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/c:essays/#3](https://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/c:essays/#3)

I think the world would be a better place if big companies making things that
change the world like Google and Apple hired more artists.

~~~
sukhadatkeereo
Thanks for the Milton Glaser link, it's beautiful and informative.

------
agumonkey
heh, I came here thinking about Olivetti.

Two things about this company:

It kinda was the Apple of the bureaucratic era. They had advertisement about
how their furniture and machines would make work heaven on earth. All this for
a bit of modular desks and drawers. Ok and nice electromechanical calculators.
But the marketing speech is exactly the same as today. Buy our stuff so you
feel you reached the top of the world of the year <insert any year>. [1]

Other thing, Olivetti invented a bunch of things in the days of early
calculators, they were HP competitors. I remember the Olivetti living room TV
computer and thought how come they missed the computer turn that much and died
? Well they didn't, capitalism pushed them into the grave. The Benedetti
family, owner of Olivetti, did some stock acrobatics in the early 80s and
failed massively, so they had to trickle down the loss just at the time
Olivetti needed financial support to ramp up personal computer research and
production. Bye

[1] computer chronicles demo of Windows 2 was the same idiocy. Now it can do
backgrounds, and custom color so YOU can have YOUR own computer. Just like
smartphones. It so much always the same it makes me physically sad. Chasing
our own tails ...

~~~
riffraff
On the Olivetti-Apple similarities, let's not forget, the insanely cool store.

[http://www.italianways.com/the-olivetti-store-set-to-
conquer...](http://www.italianways.com/the-olivetti-store-set-to-conquer-
fifth-avenue/)

~~~
agumonkey
Thanks I never saw that.

We need to call Steve to ask about potential inspirations.

~~~
yellowapple
I'll grab the ouija board.

------
MrQuincle
In fashion it is about being non-mainstream. Check eg
[https://fashionista.com/2017/06/ugly-fashion-mainstream-
tren...](https://fashionista.com/2017/06/ugly-fashion-mainstream-trend) on
ugly fashion.

Within tech there is still not so much "dare". A few exceptions are:

\+ Spider routers: [https://www.theverge.com/ces/2017/1/5/14182306/asus-
rapture-...](https://www.theverge.com/ces/2017/1/5/14182306/asus-rapture-gt-
ac5300-spider-router-bad-design-ces-2017)

\+ These "smart" hairbrushes:
[https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14169564/ces-2017-beauty-t...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14169564/ces-2017-beauty-
tech-smart-hairbrush-makeup)

\+ Power outlets: [http://www.libbywilkiedesigns.com/2017/09/new-must-
electric-...](http://www.libbywilkiedesigns.com/2017/09/new-must-electric-
gadget.html)

\+ Countless wearable thingies:
[https://iwastesomuchtime.com/95685](https://iwastesomuchtime.com/95685)

Maybe you have your own favorite hideous tech thing of last year. Would be fun
to see. It says just as much about the time or even more than the top brands
that just have to stick to their aesthetic style.

~~~
mrisoli
This is because people need variety in fashion items, you can have non-
mainstream clothing but still dress normally on other days, tech hardware
meanwhile is bought because of functionality first, so (most)people don't have
multiple smartphones to match different occasions and settings.

Software, OTOH, is also very conservative, this is because familiar design
patterns ease users' learning curves(and conversion optimization in the case
of commercial websites). However, there are some movements about creating non-
mainstream websites such
[http://brutalistwebsites.com/](http://brutalistwebsites.com/) which I find
interesting.

~~~
throwanem
What's brutalist about those? I'd understood that movement to revolve around
the aesthetic of the raw material ( _béton brut_ , "raw concrete"), which
translated to the web would seem to suggest basic HTML and images with minimal
to no styling and Javascript. The sites linked on that page seem instead to
prefer a "high style" approach that's similar to the mainstream aesthetic in
every respect save the look of the result.

~~~
mrisoli
TBH I think these websites use the term brutalist too loosely. I am not an
expert but AFAIK brutalist architecture was about a lesser concern with
aesthetics and more with function. I also expected brutalist web design to be
more about minimal styling and javascript. I just pointed this site because
that's what came to mind as to the closest that web design has to "non-
mainstream ugly fashion".

------
indescions_2017
I love Material Design language. But never would have made the connection with
Italian "Mod" style of the 1960s. For me it's more about bringing tactile
sense and physicality back to digital interfaces.

Another touch stone of inspiration for me is Mid Century Modern Danish design.
Consider this "Valet Chair" by the legendary Hans Wegner. It isn't just that
the seat lifts up to form a rack for hanging your trousers. Or that the
backing hides a jacket hanger in plain site. It's the final reveal: a mini
compartment underneath the seat for "storing ones cufflinks and tie pins" ;)

The functionality of the chair is modelled upon the world it aspires to
inhabit. It's a design for living.

Hans Wegner Designed Mid-Century Valet Chair

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/season/18/baton-rouge-
la/ap...](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/season/18/baton-rouge-
la/appraisals/wegner-designed-mid-century-valet-chair--201306A16/)

~~~
theoh
I'm going to chip in with a random example, a sweet though perhaps flawed
design for a tactile interface. The structure of it reminds me of a product
type (i.e. an algebraic data type).

It's a final project by a recent RCA graduate:
[http://leibal.com/products/indent/](http://leibal.com/products/indent/)

------
rimher
As an Italian this makes me happy and sad at the same time. We had so much
talent and so many great ideas, I'm glad that they're still around in the
world, it's just a shame we couldn't understand their value and promote them
around the world

~~~
jotm
Italian heavy machinery (agricultural, wood and metal processing,
construction) was pretty popular a couple of decades ago, simple and reliable,
nowadays it's all Dutch and German. I wonder what happened.

~~~
eecc
Decline. An all-me hedonistic generation didn’t want to let go and retire, and
kept the X and the Millenials at the door. Italy is now stuck in a 20 year
long Groubdhog Day bitterly bickering about Berlusconi, corruption, The Crisis
and Reforms (selling the last nails of the house before finally going
bankrupt.) it’s a disaster... I have no words for the amount of regret for the
missed opportunities...

but to be honest, it’s the Italian true spirit: a bit sleazy, servile,
unwilling to take any risk to the point of being a hostile reactionary.

See Adriano Olivetti’s life and what came of his legacy.

~~~
pokemongoaway
In terms of it making a come back... Why would it when the ambitious could
just go somewhere with lower taxes to reduce risk of testing their ideas?

~~~
eecc
I don’t understand where you get this obsession against taxes: It’s not the
problem! Corruption, cronyism, backward selection process, those are the real
bugs, not just taxes. Besides, in Italy they are high but only for the lower
middle class, the well connected elite has been getting a free pass since
forever

------
ungzd
> Central to Olivetti’s philosophy — and also to the designers that it hired —
> was that technology needed to be humanistic, not domineering

Today's Google is very bad at this. Their every product is creepy, cold,
dumbed-down and surveilance-based. Maybe they are trying to somewhat fix that
by visual aesthetics? Their hardware surely look great, and UIs in Android
look good too, but UIs in their web apps look dull and authoritarian.

Google Photos is just "we exfiltrate all your photos and use machine learning
on them". Its UI is like designed for monkeys. Compare that to Flickr or their
old Picasaweb. Few buttons, no functionality except "we get your photos now
you can look on them". I have lots of photos dated in future (from old camera
which had bad clock) and there's no way to fix it (except to edit date on each
photo).

Google+ was so cold and dead and creepy. Modern Youtube is just a stupid TV.
Most "account settings" pages look like I'm viewing them on giant phone. They
are saying "you don't need desktop computer, just use phone, you need only
play and pause buttons". Their design is highly political. It feels more like
eastern bloc's high modernism, not like Olivetti.

~~~
jdc0589
> Their every product is creepy, cold, dumbed-down and surveilance-based.

Aside from the always on listening for "ok google" crap that can (supposedly)
be disabled, is there anything else you are referencing? Im genuinely curious.

~~~
agildehaus
Echo does this, as does the upcoming Apple Homepod, yet nobody complains about
it every Apple/Amazon thread like they do with Google.

How else do you build a home assistant? It's not sending your data to Google
during this period. If it did record/transmit, that would be a fairly easy
thing to detect, yet nobody has.

~~~
zitterbewegung
You could build a home assistant to respond to something after a button press.

Alexa records everything after the wake word. You can see it in the alexa app.

~~~
dannyr
Good luck using an Assistant where you have to press the button before you can
use it.

Major reason why these Assistants are successful is operating them hands-free.

------
calinet6
Great article, highlighting some great design history.

Google's new design also kinda reminds me of trends in the outdoor/sports
apparel & footwear industry from about 2-3 years ago. Contrast stitching and
zippers, muted tones with bright pastels, resurgence of 1970's bright colors
and mountaineering styles. Patagonia's catalog from 2014 would be
representative, as would lululemon around that time, and Nike and UnderArmour
shoes and casual sport.

Tech is putting a new spin on it, but many of the themes are similar. I like
it! The diversity and experimentation, with respectful nods to the past and
adaptation for current trends is a great thing.

------
wallflower
Not to be overlooked is Italy's heritage of graphic design. This comprehensive
digital archive project by Nicola-Matteo Munari may waste hours of your time,
if you are inclined to visual design.

[http://www.archiviograficaitaliana.com/](http://www.archiviograficaitaliana.com/)

------
TheOtherHobbes
There's a subset of Italian Design called Memphis which this seems to be based
on.

The point of Memphis was to create funky colour combinations in living spaces
filled with extravagantly geometric objects, not to decorate utilitarian
objects with odd colours because "design".

Memphis was a big influence on early-90s graphic design, which - ironically -
gives these designs more than a hint of early-Internet "What is this company
called Google?" nostalgia.

I'm not sure if that's deliberate - and if it is deliberate, I'm really not
sure it's a good look to be aiming for in 2017.

~~~
kome
> There's a subset of Italian Design called Memphis which this seems to be
> based on.

Nope, Olivetti was not related to Memphis. Also, Memphis was later. In the
80s.

------
aloisdg
Windows Phone promoted colors. Constructor colorfully answered: Nokia Lumia,
HTC 8X & 8S, etc. RIP.

~~~
Gudin
Metro design is too much boxy for me. Sharp edges everywhere.

~~~
amiga-workbench
It was a nice answer to the child friendly curves everything else was
infatuated with.

------
tmnvix
This is encouraging.

One of my pet peeves of late has been the ubiquity of black, grey, and white
colour schemes.

Here in NZ and Australia, almost all new apartment buildings are some
combination of those colours. It's not just new buildings - people are giving
their houses the grey treatment when it comes time to repaint.

My own theory is that this has gone hand-in-hand with the shift from seeing
houses as homes (and therefore as an extension of personal character) to now
seeing houses as investments. No one seems willing to choose a colour scheme
with character for fear of limiting the pool of potential buyers.

On top of that, new cars seem less likely to be any colour other than black,
silver, or white. But maybe that's just my perception...

------
marban
And what is so special about this? Companies like Teenage Engineering have
been doing this for years and same could be argued for dirt-cheap headphones
from Urban Outfitters. For a company like Google, I'd rather expect them to
develop their very own stringent signature style after years of visual self-
discovery and a hodgepodge of mediocre results.

~~~
cromwellian
You mean like how Apple developed their very own stringent signature style
after years of visual self-discovery and a hodgepodge of mediocre results
called Braun?

~~~
marban
Yes, timelessly the same since 1976. Good artists borrow, great artists steal
as we know.

------
jamesrcole
> _And then, almost every tech product became white, silver, gray, black,
> flat, square, round, and minimalist. Boring.

But there are hints that this is changing. And one of the leaders of this
change is, somewhat improbably, Google._

It seems consistent with their logo. They've had a colourful, playful identity
from the start.

------
jacobolus
> _The innovative rubber membrane and the “volcano” shape to the keys has been
> called “the most influential button design ever”, and combined with the eye-
> popping orange color, makes this a really stunning piece, especially when
> seen and held in person._

These kinds of rubber membrane buttons were popular because they were
incredibly cheap.

They also suck.

(At least, every example I’ve ever tried was functionally terrible compared to
real switches; I’ve never tried the Olivetti originals, but I would expect
them to also suck.)

~~~
TeMPOraL
They didn't disappear, though. You know what's _even cheaper_ and sucks even
more? Capacitive surface "buttons". The ones that we now have on everything,
including phones.

~~~
jacobolus
I’m not sure what your point is. If you want to attach an external keypad to
your phone, those certainly exist. A touchscreen is a trade-off between shitty
button feel vs. profoundly expanded UI flexibility, making it a much more
general purpose input device. Touchscreens are not built into phones because
they are cheaper than buttons.

If you want a phone that does nothing but make phone calls using numerical
codes, nice physical buttons are surely better. If you want a “phone” that
does 1000 other things, the physical buttons are untenable.

I think desktop computers should come with much better physical keyboards
(ideally properly hand-shaped instead of stupid rectangular slabs) with nice
buttons and many analog inputs (trackballs, sliders, jog wheels, ...), but for
a pocket device forget it.

~~~
projektfu
I think this is a better example of what GP was talking about:
[https://goo.gl/images/5YLQk3](https://goo.gl/images/5YLQk3)

The "buttons" are hard to find and the only feedback is audio. And they can't
be reconfigured like a phone screen.

------
daviddumenil
Olivetti were quite unusual in their corporate patronage of Giovani Pintori.

They effectively brought him on as an employee and let him create art that
doubled as adverts for their products.

Does anyone else know of similar examples where companies supported art beyond
the usual exhibition sponsorship and board room art?

The image results here give you an idea if how much closer to art than advert
they were:

[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=giovanni+pintori](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=giovanni+pintori)

~~~
wmeredith
BMW Films is a thing. And they’re quite good:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hire)

------
RuggeroAltair
Might be useful to mention this article, and that maybe Olivetti's care for
design also inspired the modern Apple store. [http://www.italianways.com/the-
olivetti-store-set-to-conquer...](http://www.italianways.com/the-olivetti-
store-set-to-conquer-fifth-avenue/)

------
bluesnowmonkey
Unfortunately they still design their phones so that it turns off when I grab
it. Because I have human hands with opposable thumbs and the power button is
right there on the side where you grip it. I wonder what lifeform Nexus phones
are actually designed for.

Those colorful buttons are real nice though.

------
raldi
Why does the calculator in the photo have two "=" keys, one black and the
other white?

~~~
DanBC
Does this answer?

[http://www.johnwolff.id.au/calculators/Olivetti/D18/D18.htm](http://www.johnwolff.id.au/calculators/Olivetti/D18/D18.htm)

> Addition and subtraction operate in adding-machine fashion, with numbers
> being printed as they are entered into the register. C is a correction key
> which clears the whole of the current entry. The Total (T) key prints the
> result and clears the register; Sub-total (S) prints the contents and leaves
> the register unchanged. To encourage the habit of always pressing Total
> before starting a calculation, the D18 is made to power up with the error
> lamp lit, so that Total must be pressed before the machine can be used.

> Multiplication and division can be entered algebraically using the colour-
> coded legends printed on the keytops. For example, to multiply 2 by 3, use
> the white legends and press 2 X 3 =. For operators familiar with the
> "reverse Polish" entry of the earlier machines, using the moulded legends to
> the right of the keys will produce the same key sequence and the same
> result: 2 Enter 3 X . (There is only a single key switch under the
> Mult/Div/Enter button).

the manual doesn't seem to mention it:
[http://www.curtamania.com/curta/database/brand/olivetti/Oliv...](http://www.curtamania.com/curta/database/brand/olivetti/Olivetti%20Divisumma%2018/more/Olivetti%20Divisumma%2018.pdf)

------
x09as-d09asd213
Who is this being marketed to? Do people want funky, colourful "gadgets?"

Personally, I've an aversion to anything that looks like it might've been
designed with the focus on its appearance rather than its function.

------
jordache
wow the author was really stretching it.. to draw a connection between the
two, based on a few isolated examples.

I see the google products as a physical extension of the design language
they've started with material design.

------
asimpletune
I feel like the iPhone 5c followed along similar lines.

------
baybal2
I don't see much Italinanness in their designs a all

------
nikolay
Apple copied Swiss (or Porsche) Design for MacBooks, Google copied Italian.
Everybody "borrows" ideas these days.

~~~
baxtr
Really, only “these days”? Don’t you think it has always been like this?

~~~
nikolay
I was being sarcastic. Of course, it's been like this forever, but the
bragging we see today is beyond control. Be humble about it, people are not
that stupid. I'm especially disgusted by Apple's "the best iPhone ever". Of
course, it should be the best by being the latest model! And the over-
glorification of Jony Ive is pretty annoying. The reality is that recently
Apple is behind the rest, got too big, fat, and lazy, and all design
innovation comes from rivals.

------
l33tbro
> This isn’t a knock against the Braun style — there are many beautiful
> products that have sprung from that well.

A slight nit-pick, but does anyone else shudder a little when people use the
adjective of 'beautiful' as an objective description of a particular design?

~~~
kobeya
I don’t understand. Design can’t be beautiful?

~~~
l33tbro
Design can certainly be beautiful. What I was trying to articulate
(unsuccessfully, as usual) is people describing things as beautiful in an
objective way. Ie, as if certain objects or products are impervious to
changing trends and tastes. Particularly in tech these days, it feels like I'm
always seeing marketing material around "creating beautiful layouts" or
"beautiful products." Just an old man gripe of mine.

~~~
Veen
> people describing things as beautiful in an objective way

All people who have passed a certain intellectual threshold recognize that
when another person says "beautiful" or "lovely" or "right" without giving
reasons, they're expressing a personal opinion, although perhaps one informed
by years of experience in a particular field.

It's not necessary to preface every opinion with boilerplate signifying that
the writer is a human being with a limited perspective and that the opinions
they express aren't intended to be absolute pronouncements on the nature of
objective reality. It's understood.

~~~
l33tbro
Dunning, have you met Kruger?

I'm not sure how one could extract this sentiment from my initial comment and
progress to such a patronising and paternalistic dressing-down, save for a
thoroughly uncharitable disposition.

------
ghostly_s
Not reading this article but I don't think there's anything to this. Pretty
much all the most-lauded product designers have been continuing in this
tradition ever since it was born - that it's not ubiquitous is attributable to
timid and price-conscious clients. I don't think Google has any internal
ideology whatsoever that is pushing this - they're just a company new to the
hardware space who has lots of resources and a desire to build brand cachet,
and they see hiring respected designers and getting out of their way as an
effective way to do that.

