14 DAY TRIAL // CNN has asked the world’s most influential designers to nominate what they believe to be the most iconic industrial design from the past century. For the first spot, they picked the Apple Macintosh.
Dick Powell, co-founder of design agency SeymourPowell, tells CNN that “When Apple Mac said hello to the world in 1984 it turned the computing industry on its head,” referring to the personal computer revolution kickstarted by the two Steves who co-founded Apple Computer.
“It seamlessly combined outstanding software and hardware into an experience. Other than the Jobs-less years it spent in the innovation wilderness, it's still doing it,” Powell adds.
For the second place, the designers picked the Piaggio Vespa, followed by the escalator, the Virgin Galactic Space Plane, the AK-47, and the floppy disk. On the 7th place, they chose the iPod.
Much like the Macintosh, Apple’s new device defined a new era of portable media players.
Nick Rhodes, head of the Industrial Design MA at the University of London, reportedly nominated the device because “it so clearly demonstrates the benefits of collaborative efforts.”
“This is no longer the province of a single ‘hero’ designer, but rather the unified work of many practitioners,” he says.