Thursday, 27 October 2005 | Levent OZLER
80 Years of Design at Philips
This year, Philips celebrates 80 years of design at the company. Its products have touched the lives of almost everyone - from light bulbs and radios to televisions and CDs, from X-ray equipment to MRI scanners, from coffeemakers to vacuum cleaners, not to mention the countless 'invisible' components inside. As Philips has grown and developed, so too has its understanding of the role and importance of design...
During the past 80 years, design at Philips has evolved from a styling exercise to a sophisticated, key driver of innovation. Along the way, countless iconic products have emerged. One of the first, way back in the Thirties, was the so-called 'chapel' radio, with the grill for its inbuilt loudspeaker styled around the stars & waves of the Philips logo. The 'roller radio' appeared almost half a century later to revamp Philips' image in the youth-oriented portable audio market. The Billy bar blender took the domestic appliances world by storm in 1996, surpassing sales targets many times over and proving that creating a 'personality' for a commodity product struck a chord with consumers. Despite the initial skepticism in 1938 when the idea to produce the Philishave was proposed ("we are not barbers..." was one comment), successive generations of electric shavers have consistently broke the mould in terms of design and functionality.
The milestone of 80 years of design at Philips is commemorated with a new, richly-illustrated book about design at Philips, past tense, future sense (BIS Publishers), giving an appropriate account of the remarkable journey design at Philips has made over the years. It is not only an exploration of the history of design, it also asks questions about the role of design now and in the future.
And so, from its first tentative steps 80 years ago, when design was little more than an afterthought, design at Philips has moved with the times, anticipated change and grown into one the world's largest and most reputable design studios. Philips Design continues to evolve and progress and to find new ways of empowering and helping people, because everyone at Philips Design remains united in their conviction of the importance of design in people's lives.
Philips Design: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/6349/
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