102 Times Designers Used Their Creative Brains To Make Something Genius

If you’re not an artist, website designer, graphic designer, interior decorator, or architect, you might not think about design much in your everyday life. Sure, you probably picked out some cute pieces of artwork to display in your apartment, and maybe you’ll want to design some invitations for your birthday party. But you may not be an expert when it comes to design.

The reality, however, is that that doesn’t really matter. We can all tell whether or not something is visually pleasing, aesthetic, and practical. So your opinion on this matter matters! As you make your way through this list, feel free to critique the examples you see and decide how impressed you are by their designs. 

Now, when it comes to what technically constitutes good design, according to legendary industrial designer Dieter Rams, there are ten key principles. First, good design must be innovative. It must also make a product useful and be aesthetic at the same time. Rams also believed that good design makes a product understandable.

Meanwhile, good design is unobtrusive, honest, and long-lasting. It should be thorough down to the last detail, and it should be environmentally friendly. Finally, Rams said that good design requires as little design as possible. Less is more!

As we can see from this list, good design can be spotted and executed anywhere and everywhere. We don’t have to settle for looking at things that make us sad. And when it comes to your business, good design can lead to great profits. Crowdspring notes that good design will make a strong first impression. When customers see your logo, they’ll immediately resonate with it if they like the design. In fact, memorable logos are 71.6% more likely to receive positive responses from consumers.    

At the same time, great design can help foster relationships with customers. If consumers enjoy interacting with your site, looking at your products, and having your brand in their home, they just might become loyal customers. And, of course, good design means that your products and site are easy to use, which will definitely keep customers happy. 

Nowadays, it’s crucial for businesses to utilize social media. And on those platforms, looks are extremely important. If your posts are well designed, customers will be more likely to share and interact with them. You might even be able to go viral if you’ve got designs that wow social media users. While we all would like to pretend that we don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s no secret that you’ll be in a much better place if your cover looks fantastic. 

When it comes to physical and digital examples of great design that we see every day, Fortune has compiled a list of the 100 greatest designs of modern times. Coming in at numbers one and two are both products from Apple: the iPhone and the Macintosh computer. Next, Fortune applauds Google Search Engine, the Eames Fiberglass Armchair, the Sony Walkman TPS-L2, OXO Good Grips Peeler, Uber Rideshare, Netflix Streaming, Lego Building Blocks, and the iPod. 

After the top ten, Fortune notes that Google Maps, the Apollo 11 Mission, and the Akari Lamp 1A are some of the most impressive examples of design from the past century. Then, we’ve got another Apple product on the list: the MacBook Pro. And then, the humble Post-it Notes. Rounding out the rest of the top 20 are the Boeing 747, Polaroid SX-70, Model S Sedan, Nokia 3210, and the Savoy vase. Clearly, excellent design can be in anything. You just have to think outside the box to create it!

Are you enjoying these extremely satisfying examples of design, pandas? Keep upvoting the photos that impress you, and let us know if you can think of any other examples of perfect design that you’ve spotted in the wild. Then, if you want to continue your visual feast, we’ve got another article full of great design for you to check out next right here!