ID’s first cut at judging media in 1999.

“minus ten”. A look back 10 years to see what was going on. I’ll pick out what I feel got Stuck in Time, good or bad design that was clearly of the moment. Ahead of Time will be a look at something that had brought some insight to the future and finally, the Test of Time will soon be design classics, at least imho.

Issue of ID before the Annual is always light, not very many ads from the consultants as they we all saving their pennies for the Annual.  Regardless, I was able to find a couple of nuggets.

John Maeda was making jaws drop in 1994 with Reactive Square, Flying letters and in then in 1998 with Tap, Type, Write.  This stuff is still great and WAY Ahead of Time. Its a shame that it only runs on a PowerPC.

Oh, and look at young John back then!

Heres something that i think i used to like.  The Motorola iden phone was clearly a memorable design.  But does it stand the test of time?  I believe it’s Stuck. Those damned ellipses again!

From ID Magazine, June 1999.

The parts shown at the top are listed as the antenna cover and the antenna itself is assembled in the same space over the speaker assembly. These parts are from CNN as the links show. The external antenna connector would seem to confirm that the antenna is located down at the bottom of the phone and not the top.

The antenna is down low, just another reason why this phone is so different from the rest.