Without a doubt the Panton Chair is Verner Panton’s best known and perhaps most significant design. Its form, which is as unusual as it is striking, and the innovations in production technology which are related to this piece of furniture have made it an icon of chair design in the twentieth century. Read More
Vinyl record player history dates back to 1877, when Thomas Edison announced his invention of a device that would record and replay sound. The phonograph, as it was called, functioned by inscribing and retrieving audio information on a sheet of heavy tin foil wrapped around a cardboard cylinder. Three years later, Alexander Graham Bell improved that technology with the development of the graphophone, a device that retained Edison’s cylinder but used wax instead of tin foil as the recording medium. Both devices were marketed in the late 1800s—often as office dictation machines or as coin-operated record players stationed in public arcades. Read More
The polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company’s flagship product line. Most Polaroid cameras have fully automatic exposure systems, with an electronic eye to determine correct exposure. Quality can range from extremely good to extremely poor. Read More
The Swiss Army knife generally has a very sharp blade, as well as various tools, such as screwdrivers, a can opener, and many others. These attachments are stowed inside the handle of the knife through a pivot point mechanism. The handle is usually red, and features a “cross” logo or, for Swiss military issue knives, the coat of arms of Switzerland. Read More
The first collection of twelve Swatch models was introduced on 1 March 1983 in Zurich, Switzerland. Initially the price ranged from CHF 9.90 to CHF 49.90 but was standardized to CHF 50.00 in autumn of the same year. Sales targets were set to one million timepieces for 1983 and 2.5 million the year after. With an aggressive marketing campaign and a very reasonable price for a Swiss-made watch, it gained instant popularity in its home market. Compared to conventional watches, a Swatch was 80% cheaper to produce by fully automating assembly and reducing the number of parts from the usual 91 or more to only 51 components. Read More
Olivetti regarded design as a top priority in product development, collaborating with influential designers like Le Corbusier and Louis Khanh. Not surprisingly, many of their products are in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. One of Olivetti’s most famous designs was their Valentine typewriter, designed by Ettore Sottass and Perry King. The Valentine was unique, in that it was designed to be an attractive object. Read More
The sneaker we are familiar with today stems from the U.S. Rubber Company’s design for Keds shoes. These rubber-soled, canvas-topped shoes were mass-produced until 1917. That same year, Marguis Converse produced the first shoe made for basketball, the Converse All Star. In 1923, Chuck Taylor, an Indiana basketball player, endorsed the shoe and the name was changed to Chuck Taylor “Chucks” All-Stars. Few other shoe brands have had the same level of brand recognition as the Converse All Star. Read More
The TR-63 was introduced in 1957 – it was the first “pocket-sized” transistor radio ever made and the first Sony-branded product exported to North America, by the then-named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo company (Tokyo Telecommuncations Engineering Corporation). It became a huge commercial success, over 100,000 units were sold. Read More
The first idea for an electric toaster came in 1893 in Scotland. It was not a success at the first attempt. Many people tried to improve and build an electric toaster to be without flaws. The first U.S. patent was made by George Schneider in the early 1900’s and General Electric (GE) made a patent in 1909. The toaster that is known today is the pop up toaster. When the toast is done it pops out for easy access without burning fingers. Charles Strite was the creator of this idea in 1919. In conjunction with the Waters Genter Company, Strite released the Model 1-A-1 Toastmaster in 1926. Read More
Made entirely of a single piece of hand-blown glass, with a wooden corset around the middle to protect hands from heat, the Coffeemaker was invented in 1941 and chosen by the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1958 as one of the 100 best-designed products of modern times. Read More
EVERYDAY DESIGN 