Worst design - Phillips AZ1000

It feels mean to nail one particular design - and therefore designer - with worst design but I truly detest this radio and other radios from the 90s like it.

It might be that the 90s are in the design no mans land at the moment and in 15 years time this design will be classic, however I currently struggle to see the possible appeal. The form is effectively an amorphous blob, seemingly without any particular design motivation behind it. It does not consist of crisp lines which form a clear shape and neither does the design flow or catch the light interestingly enough to be considered organic. It's just a blob.

This may be as a result of manufacturing techniques, this form may well have been cheaper to manufacture. The material choice certainly indicates a design where cost reduction was put first. It seems to consist of the type of hard plastics that tick and clatter as you touch them without offering any compensation in texture, feel or appearance, it just feels cheap. The knobs and controls are the same, the rattle slightly when you wiggle them like the fit of the plastics is incorrect and encourage you to slam them into position as there is no reassuring sound or feel to ensure you that they are in the correct position, a feeling amplified as the product ages.

The controls also don't really improve on or challenge the norm. It's a bit of a mismatch of knobs, buttons and dials that don't bear a massive resemblance to each other and they don't seem to have been placed in positions that compliment each other particularly. The back of the section of the top of the radio is particularly bad, its asymmetrical in a very symmetrical shape which, for me, throws the balance out. The net effect is a little like a car made from spare parts. Its not progressive, its doesn't state exactly what a radio is, its just a product for sale without any real personality.

Which is why i dislike this radio so much. For me, it doesn't really achieve anything with its design despite functionality. It is not as crisp as the designs from the 60s, as passionate as the designs from the 50s, as classic as the designs from the 30s and 40s or as insane as the boom boxes from the 80s. It is just mundane, an appliance, and that is perhaps its fundamental fault.

Ed