The entire Apple design team: 16 people
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Or AAA shark.
I for one am very happy to see Apple get this award. The D&AD is a big deal. I'm a designer who has been part of teams that have won awards in the past and I don't really put much stock in them. But the D&AD is different. We're talking about an awards body who in the past have not given out an award in some categories because there was nothing award worthy. Imagine the Oscars saying there'll be no best director award this year because they've all been crap. For that reason (and many other) it has credibility. It has prestige. As far as acknowledgement goes, it's hard to best a yellow or black pencil.
And then we have Apple. Im hard pressed to think of another company from the past 50 years who has invested so much of itself into design, or owes so much to the quality of it's designers. There will always be those who claim Apple ripped off Dieter Rams, but I think Dieter himself has extinguished that argument many times over.
During Apple's recovery from near death over the past 15 years, the thing that's stood out for me is the effect their design philosophy has had on the rest of the world. As a designer, it's hard to get people to acknowledge the value of good design and people look at you like you're a pre-madonna when you complain about kerning or "how something just feels wrong". But now there's Apple, the most valuable company in the world, a seeming unstoppable titan we designers can point to a say look! You might not care about line heights, but they do and they're the biggest company in the world.
We still get looked at like we're idiots, but not so much now. And I think Apple has had a big part to play in that.
- this is the first time that I can put more faces on the design team of Apple, beyond Ives.
- also it shows a shift in the company since Steve's passing. I would have never expect them to go celebrate design awards in his time (but I could be wrong about this) like this
If you have a problem with it, take ownership of your opinion. It's annoying when people say things like "everyone knows this" or "nobody does that" because really what they're saying is "I know this" and "I don't do that".
Also, HN has never been exclusively technical. A lot of designers frequent this here corner of webland and they may well find it interesting for any number of reasons. I did.