From the end of the Sixties to the beginning of the Seventies, some companies more and more understand that a product must be able to capture the attention: not only it must function well but it must also be aesthetically pleasant. Over these years several collaborations start with designers like Marco Zanuso, Makio Hasuike and Joe Colombo. Concerning household appliances, we witness a great return of the colour but with much brighter and livelier shades than in the past decades: especially red, but also green, yellow, orange and blue. The colour is present both in built-in and free standing models, even if in built-in solutions we tend to prefer white or coating, especially the refrigerator, with the same coating as the cooker, then wood or lacquered panels. In some cases, at the end of the decade, a metal finish starts appearing to accentuate their technological character. Colour is king also in small appliances, for the whole appliance or in details, enhancing the will of freedom and fantasy. The lines of household appliances are, on the whole, always quite rigorous and linear, without great creative impulses.
The TV set has by now entered several Italian houses, we no more go to the bar to see programmes and the appliance reigns at the centre of the family life. Cathode ray tubes with shorter stems are used inside appliances and valves are replaced by transistors: this allows manufacturing more compact appliances, even if still cumbersome, with plastic structure.
