This year's Prince Philip Designers Prize—the oldest design award in the UK—went to Bill Moggridge, the man who designed the world's first laptop. You're possibly reading this on one of its grandchildren—but is yours as gorgeous looking?
It's incredible that the Grid Compass computer—created way back in 1982—still retains its industrial design dreaminess. It's clunky, sure, owing to technical constraints of the time—but the matte black finish and tight angles are still enough to get us all hot and bothered. By computer design standards, at least. And it was tough, too—built well enough to be taken into space on NASA missions.
It's also worth noting the obvious—that 28 years later, the thinnest, fastest, and most overall advanced components in the world are still inside Moggridge's basic clamshell form factor. Great design doesn't just work well—it sticks around. [Design Council via Dezeen]