Bill Moggridge died in September 2012. This was not a name I recognized when I spotted the article mentioning this sad occasion, all the more sad as he was born in 1943, so not an old man.
He died in San Francisco, USA having lived in California for the past 30 years.
Bill Moggeridge was an English designer and the man responsible for the design of the first laptop computer. This was launched in the early 1980s. There had been other portable computers developed but it was the ‘clamshell’ design that he created where the screen folds over the keyboard. If one looks in any café, on the train, offices and homes we will all see people huddled over their laptop computers. When the need arises to move on, they are quickly folded up and off we go.
We will recognize the names of other RSA Royal Designer for Industry people, such as Sir James Dyson and Sir Jonathan Ive. As a Fellow of the RSA, I just wanted to pay tribute to a designer I had not acknowledged before, for the impact it has had on my life too as I can type away on a later, but recognizable heir to the original design.
It maybe a name you do recognize, if not perhaps when you next tap away on your laptop you may care to spare a thought for those designers who quietly change our lives.
My best wishes,
Peter
