You probably won’t exactly be shocked when I tell you that Apple nabbed a pair of awards for its industrial design last night, but hear me out. The black pencil awards, handed out by British charity Design & Art Direction (aka D&AD—not to be confused with the somewhat less prestigious AD&D awards, such as “Best Bugbear”) are extremely prized in the industry, given the fact that they are not merely given to the best designs in any particular year. In fact, if nothing in a given year meets the standard, D&AD will opt not to hand out any awards at all, as they did in 2003.
Apple was only one of five winners in last night’s ceremony, taking home its fifth and sixth black pencils since 1999. That total means Apple has won more black pencils than any other single company in the history of the D&AD awards, which began in 1962. Last night’s awards were given to Apple for the design of the iMac and the iPhone. Apple previously netted awards in 2002 for the original iPod, as well as a handful of yellow pencils for other products, such as the iPod nano and iPod video.
Apple SVP of Industrial Design—and my personal idol—Jonathan Ive, seemed pretty pleased by the awards, offering a rare comment to the Guardian:
“One of the things that makes D&AD credible is they won’t give an award if the work isn’t good enough,” said Jonathan Ive, the chief designer at Apple, speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk.
“It is not about what is best that year, it is about an absolute standard.”
See? Jony doesn’t brag, he doesn’t gloat. He acts like he’s been there before. That is class, man.
Best Bugbear? I have been nominated several times but never won.....