Grillo telephone designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso
Grillo telephone (open, showing button dial)

The Grillo telephone was manufactured in Italy by Italtel, a subsidiary former state-owned telecommunications company SIP (which is now Telecom Italia).[1][2] The "Grillo" was designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, and introduced in 1967.[3] It was a popular and iconic symbol of 1960s Italian design, and remained in production until 1979.

Design

The modern styling, compact form factor, and automatically opening clamshell design set "Grillo" apart from other telephones that were available at the time. Innovative features that contributed to the phone's compact size include a dial that replaced the conventional rotary finger stop mechanism with a button in each of the number holes which, when actioned, pushed a pin through the back of the dial to stop the mechanism in its correct position. The incorporation of the ringer mechanism into the wall plug rather than the phone itself, and the use of a thin ABS plastic shell also helped reduce both its size and weight.[2][4][5] The name "Grillo", which means cricket in Italian, "derives from its shape and its chirping ringtone: an insect-like metallic chirp has replaced the harassing ring." [6][7][8]

"Grillo" was designed in 1965 by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, who, as a team, also collaborated with Italian companies such as Brionvega, Gavina, Kartell, and Alfa Romeo throughout the 1960s and 1970s.[9][10] The design was awarded the 1967 Compasso d'oro in Milan and the Gold Medal at the 1968 Ljubljna Biennale of Design (BIO3).[11][12] Examples of the telephone are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and the ADI Design Museum and Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia in Milan.[13][14][15][1]

Grillo telephone (wall plug with integrated ringer)

The "Grillo" would subsequently influence the design of flip phone mobile telephones developed during the 1990s like the Motorola StarTAC and RAZR, as well other electronic devices such as portable computers and games.[16]

The "Grillo" telephone appears in multiple episodes of the original 1960s Mission Impossible television series.[17]

Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga) uses a "Grillo" telephone in the 2021 film House of Gucci.

Also see

References

  1. 1 2 "Grillo Telephone designed by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper (1965)". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Grillo Telefono – Industria, manifattura, artigianato". Regione Lombardia – Beni Culturali (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  3. ↑ "The telephones that made the history of design". www.domusweb.it. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  4. ↑ Magliano, Daniele (2020-11-15). "Il Telefono "Grillo" compie 55 anni: il rivoluzionario cambiamento della telefonia" [The "Grillo" Telephone turns 55: the revolutionary change in telephony]. Salerno News 24 (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  5. ↑ "Iconic 1960s 'Grillo' phone study helps preserve the past and ring changes for the future". www.esrf.fr. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  6. ↑ "Grillo". Museo Omero. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  7. ↑ "Grillo (Cricket) telephone". The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "Vintage Grillo Telephone designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso". Design Market (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-06-20.
  9. ↑ "Richard Sapper | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  10. ↑ "Marco Zanuso | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  11. ↑ "Grillo telephone, Compasso d'Oro (1967)". ADI Design Museum. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  12. ↑ "Ljubljana Biennale of Design (BIO) – About BIO". Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO). Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  13. ↑ "Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper: Selections from the Design Collection | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
  14. ↑ Institution, Smithsonian. "Grillo (Cricket)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  15. ↑ "Téléphone Grillo". Centre Pompidou (in French). Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  16. ↑ "Design Museum Collection: telephones". Dezeen. 2012-08-22. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
  17. ↑ "Mission: Impossible IMF 'Grillo' Telephone replica TV series prop". www.yourprops.com. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
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