German designer Richard Sapper creates tools that become an essential, understated, almost invisible part of everyday life. He’s been doing it for several decades. Visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York and you’ll see half a dozen Sapper designs. He conceived the original ThinkPad in 1992, once describing it as the calling card for IBM.
Richard Sapper
Lenovo design leader David Hill today provided a rare look inside the way Sapper collaborates with companies to conceive and refine products. In this case, the project is “Skylight,” a computer announced one week ago that is defining a new smartbook category. Hill wrote about the project in Design Matters.
The story is remarkable for several reasons. Sapper conceived Skylight while he was traveling, imagining the design from hotel rooms, guest bedrooms, and in one case, the violin studio of a friend. The project was developed within one month, during the holidays. Creating art is one thing, but creating it on deadline, working in someone else’s studio — that’s another.
Skylight photograph from Lenovo’s Flickr photostream.
