Past tense, future sense [antikvár]

In 2005, Philips celebrates eighty years of design within the company. We felt that such a major milestone deserved to be marked appropriately. But it was not until we started exploring the archives and reviewing the achievements of those past years that we realized just what a wealth of material about design in the twentieth century we had available - and that it might alsó be of interest to a wider audience. The result is this volume, which chronicles the rich history of design at Philips up to the present day. We hope that readers will enjoy this book as more than just an act of celebration by one particular company. On a personal level, they may experience moments of recognition: after all, over the past century, Philips products have touched the lives of almost everyone in one way or another - from light bulbs and radios to televisions and CDs, from X-ray equipment to MRI scanners, and from coffeemakers to vacuum cleaners, not to mention professional equipment, such as television cameras and telephone exchanges, as weil as countless 'invisible' components. This book will give the reader an insider's view of how these products came about. For the more futuristically minded, it alsó offers a glimpse of the sorts of things that may lie ahead. And managers, designers and design professionals may find the history of the design function at Philips interesting as a microcosm of the history and growth of industrial design in generál. A time to reflect An anniversary book is bound to look back at past successes. An anniversary offers a chance to take stock of what has been achieved. It is a time for reflection - to ask how we got here; and it is a time for re-evaluation - to ask whether we should have done things differently. We can see whether we have perhaps lost anything along the way, in terms of quality or craftsmanship, for instance. At