Need help with designer names

Hi, we are doing a project at Ringling College of Art and Design that gives individual (or design firms) credit for the design of a number of common products. We’re having trouble finding the designers for: Swatch Watch, USB drive, and Samsung Gravity II phone. Anyone know who did these?

Wikipedia-history.

Samsung Gravity 2 phone : My best bet… Samsung

Swatch Watch : Which watch?

The 1st series Swatch is documented in Phaidon’s Design Classics #840, 1983, Swatch Lab.

Inventor of USB: - YouTube

What’s so special about that Samsung phone? I respect Samsung a lot as a design organization, but for a long time they were nicknamed “Same-sung” for their blatant mobile knock offs. Not sure about this one though.

you know you are right. Perhaps the Samsung is really NOT the phone to use. Is there a quintessential phone that we should use? We are using the iPod as an object, so I’d rather not use the iPhone.

Also, thank you for the USB information. Plus, the video made me laugh – what a great way to convey information. Instead of saying, “is there an app for that?” we can say, “is there a video for that?”

Motorola Brick.

Wow, that intel-commercial is probably the funniest things I’ve seen all week. Made my evening :slight_smile:

Thats the Motorola DynaTAC, but the StarTAC is also up there in terms of cell phone icons as the first real flip phone icon.

What are you looking for exactly? Iconic designs? Blockbusters? Forgotton classics? Greatest unknowns?

I thought of the StarTAC right away. The first flip, you have to give them that. I remember when that came out, it was THE PHONE. As was that mobile they did that was super soft, had a bit of a kidney bean feel. Not sure the model name.

The USB is an odd one. In a few years that will be like honoring the guy that invented SCSI… not a designer anyway. Though those intel commercials are awesome. You guys haven’t seen those before? I thought I didn’t watch much TV!

The PEBL? I wasn’t a big fan… for flip phones I like to go around and look at the store demo units, some of the hinges on various phones were just destroyed. As for the PEBL, demo units had lots of vertical scratches from opening and closing the fliding flip, and the spring started to get weak. Bit of play in the hinge too, but kind of “cute” otherwise.

But yeah, store demo units tell good stories. Look at them carefully, they’re what it will one day look and behave like in any home.

No, much much earlier than the PBLE: I’m thinking late 90’s! Can’t find a picture.

for flip phones I like to go around and look at the store demo units, some of the hinges on various phones were just destroyed. As for the PEBL, demo units had lots of vertical scratches from opening and closing the fliding flip, and the spring started to get weak. Bit of play in the hinge too, but kind of “cute” otherwise.

I get hundreds of demo phones through my work, and I regularly give them to my kids and friends kids and the local child care (who love them). The Motorola Razr (even though it is +5 years old) passes the “kid test” really well, nothing released lately seems to be as well built as this.

(if you want play phones for your kids, go to your local mobile phone shop, they will have boxes of demo phones lying around).

Speak to your mobile phone provider to see if you can get the name of the Samsung rep. They often have sales literature that shows the history and timelines of their products.

How about the Nokia 5110? I have a friend that still had one that they used up until about a year ago. Solid as a brick and with the revolution that was Xpress on covers!!
http://www.mobilesdata.com/images/big/Nokia/5110.jpg

Motorola v60:

right era, but it wasn’t a flip. I’ve been googling the heck out of it, it was a super popular model, very soft form, slightly wasted in the center, oval buttons, I should just sketch it up. It was a lot of people’s first cell phone.

Peanut shaped?

This fits your description perfectly but it’s from around 2002. Also a big jump from startac to this all around.

This site has a moto phone timeline here, if that’s not it another might sound familiar

Thanks for the link. Took me a bit, I was off in the years a bit, the v120.

I remember that phone as being one of the first with a crazy array of covers in every crazy graphic.
main_Motorola_v120C_1.jpg
img.jpeg

risking to go off topic, stone of my favourite classics, my first phone.
that screen gave you exactly what you needed, phone numbers, and texts.
And the battery lasted ages.


Nokia 3310? I remember everyone had this phone.

on the subject of moblie phone…how about the old bag phone.

http://www.svwsticker.com/motorola-m800-and-m900-bag-phone.html

Jamie Gearig