80 Years of Design at Philips

80 Years of Design at Philips
This year, Philips celebrates 80 years of design at the company.

Its products have touched the lives of almost everyone - from light bulbs and radios to televisions and CDs, from X-ray equipment to MRI scanners, from coffeemakers to vacuum cleaners, not to mention the countless 'invisible' components inside.

As Philips has grown and developed, so too has its understanding of the role and importance of design...

During the past 80 years, design at Philips has evolved from a styling exercise to a sophisticated, key driver of innovation.

Along the way, countless iconic products have emerged.

One of the first, way back in the Thirties, was the so-called 'chapel' radio, with the grill for its inbuilt loudspeaker styled around the stars & waves of the Philips logo.

The 'roller radio' appeared almost half a century later to revamp Philips' image in the youth-oriented portable audio market.

The Billy bar blender took the domestic appliances world by storm in 1996, surpassing sales targets many times over and proving that creating a 'personality' for a commodity product struck a chord with consumers.