Moto Bellissima Italian Motorcycle Design from the 50s and 60s
On a recent return trip from the CETW show in San Francisco I came across a great art exhibit in the International Terminal at SFO. Moto Bellissima is an exhibit featuring motorcycles made in Italy during the 50’s and 60’s. In total there were about 12 bikes.
Motorcycles have always been intriguing to me from a design standpoint. Unlike a kiosk where we wrap the internal components in a shell to make it look good motorcycles show you everything. The designers work to not only to leave everything exposed but they showcase the internal parts and even work to make those parts a part of the design. In the kiosk world it would be like taking a PC and adding embellishments. Maybe even painting it a certain color so you could leave it exposed for everyone to see. And in the case of motorcycles we’re talking about items that typically are about as sexy as a PC. When is the last time you’ve opened the hood on your car and though “wow, that’s a nice looking water pump.”?
Italian culture in many ways is centered around design. Everything from food, transportation, clothing, architecture, even daily life is an exercise in design. It was a real treat to see these motorcycles set up at the airport and learn about them. My only complaint on the whole exhibit is it would have been nice to have a kiosk to learn more about the bikes than the little plaque had on them.
125cc Gran Sport "Marianna" 1956 | Photo credit: SFO Museum
175cc CSS Super Sport "Disco Volante" 1955 | Photo credit: SFO Museum
About Frank Olea
Frank Olea is the CEO and co-owner of Olea Kiosks, Inc., a manufacturer of Interactive and Self-Service Kiosk terminals. For more than 35 years Olea has constantly defined itself as the go to company for beautifully designed products. Olea Kiosks are created under our mantra “Better Kiosks Through Intelligent Design”. Olea’s focus on design has garnered the company many awards. Olea creates Kiosks for just about every application and has special focus in the Healthcare, Gaming, Wayfinding, Retail, and Financial markets. In addition to award winning custom kiosk design and manufacturing Olea also offers a full line of sleek off the shelf kiosks that can be configured to order and shipped in as little as two weeks. You can also find Frank on Google+.
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