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The Greatest Design of all Time - 6 February 2005
by Pat Jordan
Read this article in Chinese. (translated by Christina Li)
I’m writing this article from inside a coffee store on Broadway. I’ve been here for a while, sitting, writing, catching up on e-mail correspondence, talking to clients on my cell phone, watching the world go by and enjoying a three dollar cup of coffee. Yesterday evening I was guest of honour at a design and marketing convention that was held here in the Big Apple. It was an enjoyable evening and my speech was well received. Afterwards the officials of the organising committee took me to dinner at a wonderful restaurant a block or so from Times Square. While were enjoying our meal the conversation turned, not unnaturally, to the design and marketing of great products and services. After a while one of my dining companions asked me what I regarded as the greatest design of all time.
It’s a great question and one that I have discussed many times before. I am privileged to consult on design and marketing to many of the world’s most successful companies, and a whole range of products and services came to mind. However, while some brilliant stuff has hit the market in recent years, I felt that if we were talking about the all time greats I should pick something that had passed the test of time. I also confined myself to specific branded products, thus ruling out generic designs such as the pencil sharpener, public transport or the shoe. Within these limits the choice was mine to make.
Being a Brit (or at least a half-Brit) I was initially tempted to go for the Mini, that wonderful automotive icon of Britain in the 1960s. The Mini was a car that perfectly caught the mood of its time. Compact and affordable, it was the thing for all trendy young people to have. What’s more it was egalitarian. If you came from a working class family you could afford one even on modest wages. Those from wealthier backgrounds could get their parents to buy one for them! The only requirement was that you were young. Like the fashions of the time – mini-skirts for women, ‘peacock’ shirts for men – the Mini was geared towards youth. Cheap, practical and fun, it symbolised youth and Britishness at a time when being young and British were the coolest things in the world to be.
However, unlike the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, the Mini never really cracked it in America. Indeed, talking of Beatles – or in this case ‘Beetles’ – the VW bug might actually have a better claim to the mantle of greatest ever design, having succeeded for longer and in more markets than its British competitor. But my real case against the Mini is personal – I owned one in the 1980s and found it to be the most unreliable car I’ve ever had the misfortune to drive. I almost got killed after it had the audacity to break down in the fast lane of the highway, and for that reason alone I refused to give it the award!
Another product that came to mind was the Apple Macintosh computer. A great personal favourite of mine this. The Apple Mac was the first PC to use a graphical user interface. Previously computers operated on what were called ‘command lines’, which basically meant that you had to type in the names of all the things that you wanted it to do. That might sound straightforward, but it was tough to remember all the command names, and woe betide you if you put a semicolon in the wrong place. When the Apple Mac came along it changed all that. Rather than being confronted with an aggressively flashing prompt challenging us to make the computer’s day by trying to get it to do what we wanted, we were presented with a cheerful looking interface known as a ‘desktop’. This had lots of little pictures on it representing the kinds of things that we might find in an office, such as folders, files and bins. Instead of typing commands we simply picked them from menus and moved things around using a mouse. The Apple Mac was, and is, easy to use and attracted many people who were previously nervous of computers.
Although I love this product, I still don’t feel I can justify rating it as the greatest design of all time. Despite all its great qualities it has never managed to dominate its market. In the early days it was outsold by cheaper command-line based machines, and now its sales figures lag behind those of competitors running on Windows. Nevertheless, it remains a superb design that has had a significant influence on the world of personal computing.
With sales and brand equity as factors, Coca-Cola and Marlboro must be right up there in the running. Coke is by far the world’s most popular drink. It is available everywhere, and according to research ‘Coca-Cola’ is now the second most recognised word in the world (the first being ‘OK’). The design of the logo, the distinctive packaging and the history of imaginative advertising campaigns have certainly played their part in this. Likewise with Marlboro. Originally a brand smoked mostly by women, the introduction of the Marlboro man and rigid crushproof packaging sent a clear message that this was a product for tough, outdoor types of guy. The strategy worked and Marlboro went on to become the biggest cigarette brand of all. In fact it is currently rated as the world’s most valuable brand in terms of the value add it gives in the marketplace, outdoing even Coke.
Marlboro is undoubtedly a great brand, but I’m not going to give the award to a product that is so harmful to people’s health. And Coca-Cola? Well again it’s very impressive, but the ‘New Coke’ fiasco counts against it and it doesn’t quite make my number one position. No, my selection for the best design of all time goes to… the Levi 501 jean.
Why the 501? Well to me it has everything a good design should have. First of all it is a great product in terms of its practical and functional qualities. Comfortable, durable and wearable indoors or out in almost any weather. The pockets are great too – there are four of them, they’re big and stuff doesn’t fall out every time you sit down. What’s more, 501s look better the older they get. While many clothes and products generally are discarded as soon as they start to age, 501s are more treasured by their owners. And those owners span all sectors of society. Men and women, rich and poor, old and young, fashion-conscious and those who just dress for practicality, the 501 appeals to them all.
The 501 has been around for over 100 years and is as popular today as it has ever been. In an area as fickle as fashion, where many designs only last for a matter of months, it has led the market for more than a century. That’s why it gets my vote as the greatest design of all time, and that’s why I’m wearing a pair of 501s as I write this. And right now I’m hoping they’ll help me to brave the cold I’m about to face outside – New York can be freezing at this time of year. Hmm, maybe I’ll just have one more coffee before I go…
Dr. Patrick W. Jordan is an international design and marketing consultant, author and professional speaker. His methods and ideas have influenced the design of many of the products that we find in our homes, cities and workplaces.Pat is Owner and CEO of the Contemporary Trends Institute [CTI], an international trends and branding consultancy. Clients of CTI include multinational companies from many different industry sectors, including: aerospace, consumer goods, computers and IT, consumer electronics, medical, telecommunications, food and beverage, leisure and retail.
Dr. Jordan has been invited to lecture at conferences and seminars all over the world. He has over 100 publications in peer reviewed journals, books and conference proceedings. He has written or edited 6 books, five of which have reached # 1 in the Amazon.com category bestsellers lists, and is currently the world’s best selling author in his field. His books include Designing Pleasurable Products (Taylor and Francis 2000). This has become a standard design and marketing text within both industry and academia.
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