After returning home, Sottsass worked as an architect with his father, often on new modernist versions of buildings that had been destroyed during the war. In 1947, living in
Milan, he set up his own architectural and industrial design studio, where he began to create work in a variety of media, including ceramic, painting, sculpture, furniture, photography, jewellery, architecture and interior design. at their home in Milan in 1969 In 1949, Sottsass married
Fernanda Pivano, a writer, journalist, translator and critic. From 1954 to 1957, he was a member of the
International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, resigning due to the movement's perceived aggression and its lack of professionalism. In 1956, Sottsass travelled to New York City and began working in the office of
George Nelson. He and Pivano travelled widely while working for Nelson, and returned to Italy after a few months. During the same year, Sottsass was commissioned by the American entrepreneur Irving Richards for an exhibition of his ceramics. '' typewriter (1969)Back in Italy in 1957, Sottsass joined , a semi-industrial producer of contemporary furniture, as an artistic consultant. Much of the furniture he worked on there influenced the designs he would later create with Memphis Milano. In 1956, Sottsass was hired by
Adriano Olivetti as a design consultant for
Olivetti, to design electronic devices and develop the first Italian
mainframe computer, the
Elea 9003, for which he was awarded the
Compasso d'Oro in 1959. His design for the MC 19 electric adding machine (with ) was awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1970. Through colour, form and styling, Sottsass brought office equipment into the realm of popular culture. His first typewriters, the
Tekne 3 and the
Praxis 48, were characterised by their sobriety and angularity. With Perry A. King, Sottsass created the
Valentine typewriter in 1969, considered a milestone in 20th-century design While continuing to design for Olivetti in the 1960s, Sottsass developed a range of objects reflecting his personal experiences travelling in the United States and India. These included large altar-like ceramic sculptures and his "Superboxes", radical sculptural gestures presented as consumer products and conceptual statements. Covered in bold and colourful simulated custom laminates, they were precursors to Memphis, a movement which came more than a decade later. Around this time, Sottsass said: "I didn't want to do any more consumerist products, because it was clear that the consumerist attitude was quite dangerous." His work from the late 1960s to the 1970s was defined by experimental collaborations with younger designers such as
Superstudio and
Archizoom Associati, and association with the
Radical movement, culminating in the foundation of
Memphis at the turn of the decade. In the early 1970s, he designed the modular office equipment collection
Synthesis 45. Sottsass and Fernanda Pivano divorced in 1970. In 1976, Sottsass married
Barbara Radice, an art critic and journalist. When Roberto Olivetti succeeded as head of the company, he named Sottsass artistic director and offered him a high salary, but Sottsass refused. Instead, he created Studio Olivetti, independent of the company, which became a prominent international centre of design combining research with creation and industrial strategy. His concern that his creativity would be stifled by corporate work is documented in his 1973 essay
When I was a Very Small Boy. In 1968, the
Royal College of Art in London granted Sottsass an honorary doctorate. == Memphis Group ==