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April 02, 2020
Signify’s Philips Hue occupies the 21st position in Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 greatest designs of modern times
60 years after the original list, 100 products have been selected the greatest designs of modern times by Fortune magazine. Philips Hue, designed by Philips Lighting in 2012, sits in the 21st position. The publication says of Hue that it “made lighting our homes as personal as the music we listen to.”
In 1959 Fortune magazine published a list of the 100 best designed products of the modern era. Compiled by Jay Doblin, director of the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), the list was based on a survey of 100 of the top architects, designers and design teachers of the times.
The result was a document illustrating products such as sports cars by Porsche and Cisitalia, and even sleeker armchairs by Eames, Aalto, and Saarinen. Domestic appliances with forms foreshadowing Sputnik and the start of the space age also featured prominently.
The list was a recognition of the aesthetic achievement of luxury goods as well as a celebration of the mutual reinforcement of form and function present in products designed for daily household usage.
In 2019, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the original list, Fortune recreated the survey, together with the IIT Institute of Design (ID).
The mammoth undertaking took more than a year to plan, carry out the survey and process the results, but the list of 100 iconic designs is now complete, showing yet again that “great design is more than window dressing – it’s about making life easier, simpler, better. And that’s beautiful”.
Read the full Fortune list of ‘The greatest designs of modern times’ here.
Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the world leader in lighting for professionals, consumers and the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact systems and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings and public spaces. In 2023, we had sales of EUR 6.7 billion, approximately 32,000 employees and a presence in over 70 countries. We unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We have been in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index since our IPO for seven consecutive years and have achieved the EcoVadis Platinum rating for four consecutive years, placing Signify in the top one percent of companies assessed. News from Signify can be found in the Newsroom, on X, LinkedIn and Instagram. Information for investors is located on the Investor Relations page.
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