Apple is the best brand and design studio of the last 50 years

Apple’s design team lead by SVP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive was summoned at the 50th anniversary celebration of Design and Art Direction (D&AD), one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for advertising and design. Apple was named both the best brand and best design studio of the last 50 years. In order to mark the occasion, Apple did something it’s never done before.

The Cupertino company flew its entire 16-member industrial design team to London and made them available for a unique photo-op. These are the people that made your iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macs and numerous other products that ooze with style and sexyness…

D&AD, a British educational charity, promotes excellence in design and advertising and its annual ceremony is hailed as one of the advertising/design industry’s most prestigious awards.

The London Evening Standard has the story:

Sir Jonathan Ive, the company’s design guru, who usually eschews publicity, came to collect the awards, which were held at a dinner at Evolution in Battersea Park in London.

But that’s not all:

Even more unusually, Apple flew in its entire design team from San Francisco in recognition of the importance of the D&AD Awards and all 16 of them – 14 men and two women – accompanied Sir Jonathan on stage to collect the award for best design studio.

Apple has never before made available its core design team, comprised of fourteen men and two women. Matter of fact, this was their first-ever public appearance:

It is understood that Apple’s design team have never previously attended an award ceremony. Their appearance was all the more notable given that Apple is focused on the global launch of its iPhone5, which hits stores on Friday.

Jony Ive reportedly “wore a big smile” at the 50th anniversary celebration of D&AD.

The above photo is gold, indeed.

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Robert Senior noted that “If anyone wondered whether D&AD mattered, the world’s most valuable company has flown its entire design team over”.

Apple was both most awarded brand and design studio. Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners collected The Best Advertising Agency award.

DigitalArts noted that only Apple was recognized with two awards.

Here are your videos.

The Drum explains the best brand award:

Apple’s success at D&AD reflects the company’s ability to sustain itself in our hearts and minds. Design led innovation is at the heart of Apple where making the best products in the world is the ultimate goal.

The passion and utmost care that the design team puts into the development process creates a range of award winning products that surprise and delight millions and millions of consumers around the world.

I’ve always maintained that Apple is many things, amongst them the world’s greatest marketing machine.

And here’s a blurb accompanying the best design studio award of the last 50 years:

Most people would argue that Apple’s phenomenal success has been design led. Apple founder Steve Jobs was known to obsess over the detail of product design – and under the inspirational leadership of Sir Jonathan Ive the design team at Apple has produced a seemingly endless stream of beautiful, functional products that have been celebrated at D&AD for decades.

Are you glad that Apple’s design team was awarded not with one, but two high-profile recognitions?