DESIGN CLASSICS
‘I ride a bike everyday and it’s perfect’
Graphic designer Daniel Ibbotson is a partner in Graphical House, a design consultancy that works in TV, advertising and print media. Its biggest clients are The Lighthouse and the BBC, for whom the company produced graphics for its T in the Park coverage. Here, Ibbotson focuses on an object whose design principles remain unchanged since its invention over 100 years ago: the pedal cycle.
ood design can be measured in many ways: function. aesthetics. innovation.
(‘lassic design should have a balance of
these elements. plus something extra. Attitude. charm. whatever you want to call it.
In these lists. ‘design classics' tend to be products. chairs. toasters. Graphic design and architecture rarely feature. yet they affect us just as much. Visual media like newspapers. magazines. internet and motion graphics are often forgotten yet these graphic disciplines have yielded many classics over the years. Neville Brodie‘s The Face magazine. Joshua Davis‘ Pray/Station website or Saul Bass‘ lilm titles for Anumnrv ()fu Mun/er. In my working environment the Apple computer rules but just as important is the software. ()SX. Adobe (‘reative Suite and Afterliffects — software that has been designed to give me the freedom I need as a designer.
I guess people like their classics to have personality. and it's easier to attach personality to an object. That's why I'm choosing the bike. I ride one every day. It‘s functional. efficient. ergonomic and fun. A bike brings a lot more to the table than its physical attributes. It can affect you in a myriad of ways depending on how and where you ride it. A meeting of so many skills and design processes. the bike is all about interaction between design and user. The bike exists in many forms. but right now I‘ll choose my downhill bike. an lronhorse ‘Sunday‘. It‘s designed for riding downhill off- road. it has 200mm of suspension travel and is super strong without weighing a ton. It is responsive and confidence inspiring. It has the aesthetic qualities of the classic bike shape but is at the cutting edge. Worldwide it wins a lot of races . . .just not with me on it.
8 THE LIST 17-24 Aug 2006
ANGLEPOISE 1227
The Anglepoise 1227 lamp is task-lighting in its purest form - a supreme piece of British rational design that is still manufactured by the same British company as when it was launched in 1935. The human arm was the inspiration for the action, but designer George Carwardine took things a stage further by basing the mechanics of the lamp on the tension principle of muscles in limbs. (Katy Djunn)
TOBLERONE
. *’ 1.“
Jean Tobler opened his first chocolate shop in 1867. By 1899 his chocolate was in such demand that he was able to open a chocolate factory. But it was not until Tobler's son Theodor and his cousin Emil Baumann came up with the recipe for milk chocolate with honey almond nougat in 1908 that Toblerone was born. Theodor registered the brand in 1909 along with its distinctive pyramid shape and packaging. (Kieran Long)
‘The largest airship in history’
Alex Milton is head of furniture, product and interior design at Edinburgh College of Art. Last year he curated Claystation, at The Lighthouse, an exhibition in which visitors helped created their own colourful model of Glasgow from plasticine. Here, in an extract from the book Phaidon Design Classics, he explains why one of the greatest designs of the 20th century turned out to be a disastrous failure.
'0' SWOTZIILAID-
he I]. llindenhurg went into service in
I l‘)3(i. It was only operational for a year. during which time it undertook ()(l voyages. becoming legendary when it exploded at its mooring mast on (i May l‘)37. The use of highly explosive hydrogen as the buoyancy gas was forced upon Zeppelin. due to the fact that the non-flammable helium gas was only manufactured in the United States at the time. which had banned its export because of rising diplomatic tensions and fear of impending war. Zeppelin had invented the rigid airship in l‘)l)(). developing the concept of a spindle-shaped optimum aerodynamic form through a series of designs that culminated in the Hindenburg. the largest airship in history. The remarkable shape honed by extensive wind tunnel testing marked the pinnacle of aerodynamic research at time. It used an aspect ratio of 6:] (length to width) optimal for lowering the coefficient of drag. and was constructed from longitudinal fabric strips over a metal frame to further reduce drag and create an utterly functional yet hugely iconic form. The airship had a structural volume of about 25ll.()()(lm3 and weighed 80