oobject » 12 classic sony designs

12 classic sony designs

In the mid 50s an small Japanese electronics company, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, created an American sounding brand name, Sony, for a series of portable all-transistor radios. The product design was similarly American influenced, with wide spaced serif lettering, like that used on Amtrak trains or even Raymond Loewy’s original Air Force One, but with a flair and attention to detail that was distinctively Japanese. Half a century later, Sony, is still a consumer brand which is associated with superior design. Here are 12 of our all time favorite classic Sony Designs.

(Ranked by user votes) Vote on and review the contenders below.

The eponymous Walkman was the device the cemented Sony as a premium brand in the 80s, even more than the transistor radio had in the 60s. The first generation device, however innovative, did not perfect the design or form factor in the way that the WM 2 did. At the time, it seemed impossibly small being advertised almost entirely hidden behind an ordinary cassette box.

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wistit »

WM 2 Second Generation Walkman - 1981. more...

(votes: +138)

6 comments »

Launched on Christmas Day 1959, the TV-8-301 was the first all transistor TV set. Its curved shape is derived directly from the tube. This was the first Sony product to initiate the signature centered logo.

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wistit »

Sony TV-8-301 1959. more...

(votes: +122)

1 comment »

The temptation for console games has always been to appeal to a grey suited adult's idea of what younger people like. This has resulted in platforms such as the X-Box, which the use unnecessary styling and fake metallics of cheap snowboarding gear.Not for Sony, despite the slightly overblown nature of the PS3, the original Sony Playstation was a triumph of design, exemplified nowhere more so than in the controller with its elegant shape and abstract geometric button icons.

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wistit »

PlayStation 1 - 1994. more...

(votes: +85)

3 comments »

Although Sony were not the first to built an all transistor radio, they were the first company to create successful mass market versions. As with the Walkman, the design classic is not the early 1954 radio, which was the first product made by Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo under the brand name Sony, but the iconic TR-610 from 1958.This device shows clearly that Sony design was originally an attempt to copy American post war modernism. The early Sony logo using a widely spaced serif font that would not look out of place on the side of Raymond Loewy's Air Force One.

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wistit »

Sony TR-610 pocket transistor radio - 1958. more...

(votes: +81)

1 comment »

The PlayStation Portable combined the console and screen within a device which could be held like a regular controller. The width and ergonomics of this device make it a more satisfying form factor than the iPhone, for watching video. It is slightly too large to be truly pocket sized, something that ultimately limits its potential.

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wistit »

PSP 1000 - 2004. more...

(votes: +46)

1 comment »

Before flat panel TV's the rugged, perfect cube KX-27 Profeel was the default system for museums and art galleries. Most often the TV itself was more impressive than what was playing on it.This is a true Sony classic, and gives us instant nostalgia for CRT TV's.

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wistit »

Second Generation Profeel TV - 1986. more...

(votes: +38)

5 comments »

The TC 100 was the first cassette recorder. Based upon Phillips new Compact Cassette standard, it was half the size of the smallest reel to reel machine.What makes this particular design such a success is its enduring legacy, machines with almosyt exactly the same design were made by other manufacturers up until the demise of the cassette.

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wistit »

TC 100 Cassette Recorder 1966. more...

(votes: +37)

2 comments »

The TC 50 clearly shows the design precedent for the walkman. It became popular after it was used by astronauts on Apollo 7.

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wistit »

TC 50 Cassette Recorder - 1969. more...

(votes: +36)

1 comment »

This is the exact opposite of an iPhone, a device with beautiful buttons and no screen. The CM R111 represents an evolutionary dead end in cellphone design, but a beautiful one. While Nokia were perfecting the chocolate bar style and Motorola were introducing the clamshell, Sony went against the grain and developed a phone which used styling from their high end radio gear to produce something which looked more like a walkie talkie than a cellphone.

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wistit »

CM R111 Cellphone 1994 - the antithesis of the iPhone. more...

(votes: +23)

3 comments »

Four years before Apple had a Laptop anywhere close to this with the Titanium, Sony produced the more compact, magnesium cased Vaio.

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wistit »

Vaio PCG 505 - 1997. more...

(votes: +22)

4 comments »

One of the first devices with electronic controls, this was the best designed of the early Betamax Video Recorders which were to become a lesson in the pitfalls of proprietary formats that Apple would fail to heed.

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wistit »

SL C7 VCR - 1979. more...

(votes: +13)

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Although a Mavica prototype was used by professionals, 7 years earlier, at the LA Olympics, the 1988 C1 was the first consumer digital camera from Sony. It had the horizontal binocular style design that Apple used for their early and abortive foray into the digital camera market.

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wistit »

Mavica MVC C1. more...

(votes: -3)

2 comments »

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