Philips Design is a global design agency. Headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, the agency also has offices in Amsterdam, Andover, Atlanta, Gurgaon (INDIA), Hong Kong, and Singapore. The agency offers a wide range of design services, from product design

Industrial design

Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...

, packaging design, identity design, environment design and interface and interaction design to (and increasingly) design of the total user experience, innovation design and expertise in understanding people, cultures and societies.

In 1998, Philips Design became an independent unit within the Philips

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

 Group, able to provide design services to all business divisions of Philips, as well to selected external clients. The company employs around 500 workers from a wide range of disciplines. More than 40% of employees are women, and the average age of an employee is 28 years.

History

The agency's history can be traced back to the mid-1920s, when Louis Kalff established the Advertising Section of Philips, under the patronage of Anton Philips, one of the company's founders. In the 1960s, Philips Board of Management established the Industrial Design Bureau, headed by Rein Veersema. In 1969, the competence center was renamed the Concern Industrial Design Centre (CIDC), led by Norwegian Knut Yran. In 1980, Robert Blaich was appointed as the new Director of CIDC. In 1991, he was succeeded by Stefano Marzano, current CEO and Chief Creative Director of Philips Design.

Design Legends

Over more than 80 years of its history, Philips Design has designed a number of well-known products in the area of Consumer Electronics, Domestic Appliances, Medical Systems, Lighting and Corporate identity.

Among the best-known designs are

• 1938 Philips Chapel radio
  Chapel radio
  The Chapel is a radio with built-in loudspeaker designed by Dutch Philips Electronics in 1938.The Chapel radio was a first of its kind among many products of that time. Where previous designs were boxy and impersonal, the Chapel was shapely, homey and incorporated the striking stars and lines logo,...
  
  
• 1959 Philishave
  Philishave
  Philishave was the brand name for the electric shavers manufactured by the Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care unit of Philips . In recent years, Philips had extended the Philishave brand to include hair clippers, beard trimmers and beard shapers...
  
   shaver
• 1963 Compact cassette
• 1966 Philips Brandname and Logo (‘Philips
  Philips
  Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
  
  ’ Shield’)
• 1982 Roller radio
• 1996 Billy Blender
• 1998 Coolskin shaver

Current Project Portfolio

Philips Design offers its services to both Philips and external clients. Among the most noticeable design achievements of the recent years are:

• Libra, mobile X-ray machine (2001)
• Metal ‘Cuby’, kettle (2003)
• Wearable Key, digital camera (2003)
• City Line, vacuum cleaner (2004)
• Ambilight
  Ambilight
  Ambilight, which is short for Ambient Lighting Technology, is a feature invented by Philips Electronics, generating light effects around the TV that correspond to the video content. The effect, the company claims, is a larger virtual screen and a more immersive viewing experience. In addition,...
  
  , flat TV (2004)
• Ambient Hospital (2004)

Philips Design also produced a range of design solution

Solution

In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of only one phase. In such a mixture, a solute is dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. The solvent does the dissolving.- Types of solutions :...

s in collaboration with such companies as Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

, Leolux, Alessi, Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

, Olivetti

Olivetti

Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...

, Cappellini and Securitas, among many others.

Visionary Design Projects

Since the 1990s, Philips Design has conducted a range of visionary projects, exploring future landscapes of interaction between people and new technologies. Ideas and design concepts created during these exploratory projects inspired manufacturers, researchers and designers, as well as generating feedback from the general public.

Philips Design’s own research efforts are focused on cutting-edge domains, such as Ambient Intelligence

Ambient intelligence

In computing, ambient intelligence refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence is a vision on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s for the time...

, Wearable Electronics, Experience Design

Experience design

Experience design is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design...

, Open Tools and Connected Planet. Initiatives include:

• Vision of the Future (1996)
• Vision on the Move(1996)
• LiMe – Living Memory (1997)
• Pogo (2000)
• Delphi – Exploration into Possible Futures (2001)
• MIME – Multiple Intimate Media Environments (2002)

Design Awards

Among the most recent awards are:

• iF Awards (2005)
• Good Design Awards (2005)
• I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review (2005)
• Dutch Design Prize (2005)