Interfaces

With original designs by: Henry Dreyfuss, Donald Genaro, Jonatahn Ive, Marco Zanuso, Ralph Lysell, Paul Pierce, among others.

The telephone is by far the most representative object of our times. By abolishing distances and establishing connections between remotely distant places, the phone went from being a tool modeled by the human being to one that completely modeled our lives. Its popularity was almost immediate and during its first decades, it didn’t have to make great efforts to be part of the consumption dynamics of each society, however, the diversification of options that began to be seen towards the middle of the 20th century caused that each new phone, incorporate some striking technology or adopt the aesthetics of the time to capture the attention of its potential users. In this context, print and television advertising performed as the portal for consumers to contemplate the aspirational scenarios that the phones proposed, turning later into indispensable gadgets.

Departing from a selection of the Archivo Collection, Interfaces presents some of the most emblematic and revolutionary telephones in the history of contemporary design and recomposes the mercantilist narratives that were built around them to make them the ubiquitous devices that today condition our existence.
— Archivo