Italian design Italian furniture include Zanussi's rigorous, creative and streamlined washing machines and fridges, the "New Tone" sofas by Atrium, and most famously the innovative post-modern bookcase, made by Ettore Sottsass for the Memphis Group in 1981, inspired by Bob Dylan's song "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again". The bookcase became a huge cultural icon and design event of the 1980s. Modern Italian design has changed the meaning of style and elegance and many interior designers use Italian or Italian inspired pieces in their work. Stunning examples are found in the ranges by Slide Designs, Belta Frajumar and Lumen
Ettore Sottsass plastic portable Valentine typewriter in 1970, Sotsass described the Valentine as "a brio among typewriters." Compared with the typical drab typewriters of the day, the Valentine was more of a design statement item than an office machine. With the rise of new groups (Global tools, Archizoom, Superstudio, UFO, Zzigurat, 9999...) the handmade appeared suddenly as the new game for experimentation, a lot of these new groups playing in this new/old path to renew creation. In October 1980, Sottsass was confronted with two proposals, one from Renzo Brugola, a dear old friend and carpenter, telling him his will "to make something