Apple Vision Pro earns prestigious Black Pencil design award

AppleInsider

The UK's Design and Art Direction awards have honored the Apple Vision Pro with its highest accolade in a ceremony attended by Apple designer Alan Dye.

The Black Pencil Award was for both the Apple Vision Pro hardware and visionOS

Apple has been honored with a Black Pencil by the Design and Art Direction (D&AD) awards many times before, including for the original iPhone, the iMac, and even for its website. For 2024, the Apple Vision Pro has won a Black Pencil for Digital Design and Connected Experiences -- and a Graphite Pencil for Use of XR.

"We are honored that visionOS has been awarded the prestigious D&AD Black Pencil for Digital Design," Apple's Vice President of Human Interface Design Alan Dye told design magazine dezeen. "This new era of computing will redefine how we connect and create, and this award is a testament to the tight integration and care the design studio and engineering teams at Apple have invested into crafting a truly magical experience."

"At Apple, design plays such a central role in defining not only how our products look, but most critically, how they work," he continued. "Our goal has always been to create intuitive user experiences that blur the lines between hardware and software and reimagine how users interact with technology."

"VisionOS is a powerful example of these principles in action," said Dye. "Designed from the ground up, it features an entirely new interface, driven by your eyes, hands and voice, all designed to deliver spatial experiences that seamlessly blend digital content with the physical world."

"This new era of computing will redefine how we connect and create," concluded Dye, "and this award is a testament to the tight integration and care the design studio and engineering teams at Apple have invested into crafting a truly magical experience."

Describing its reasons for awarding Apple Vision Pro both the Black Pencil and Graphite Pencil, D&AD's announcement says that it "and visionOS unlock new ways to interact with technology and the world through spatial computing."

"Years in the making," it continues, "the platform is full of technological breakthroughs made possible by the tight integration between design and engineering teams across hardware and software."

Among the many D&AD awards that Apple has received, the company's entire design team was honored jointly in 2012.



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slow n easy

I'm expecting that at some point in the future, Apple Vision Pro will replace my iPad. That day has not yet arrived, but I'm expecting that it will within the next couple of years. Maybe when we finally get solid-state batteries. The battery issue is my main hesitancy to Apple Vision Pro.
Edited: For Spelling

Afarstar

Such a well deserve award. Great for Apple 👏👏

humbug1873

Is this also one of these design prices where you actually pay the awards organisation money and then they invent a new, fitting category in which this device wins said award?  (At least that is the way the infamous 'red dot design award' usually works).

DAalseth

slow n easy said:

I'm expecting that at some point in the future, Apple Vision Pro will replace my iPad. That day has not yet arrived, but I'm expecting that it will within the next couple of years. Maybe when we finally get solid-state batteries. The battery issue is my main hesitancy to Apple Vision Pro.
Edited: For Spelling

I’m saying five years, minimum, but same. 

VictorMortimer

DAalseth said:

slow n easy said:

I'm expecting that at some point in the future, Apple Vision Pro will replace my iPad. That day has not yet arrived, but I'm expecting that it will within the next couple of years. Maybe when we finally get solid-state batteries. The battery issue is my main hesitancy to Apple Vision Pro.
Edited: For Spelling

I’m saying five years, minimum, but same. 

Sure, why not.  I too would like a new way to play solitaire.

The iPad is a toy, replacing it with another expensive toy only makes sense.

VictorMortimer

humbug1873 said:

Is this also one of these design prices where you actually pay the awards organisation money and then they invent a new, fitting category in which this device wins said award?  (At least that is the way the infamous 'red dot design award' usually works).

It's an advertising award.  It's significantly less prestigious than winning a Razzie, and perhaps slightly more prestigious than winning a golden cow patty.

DAalseth

VictorMortimer said:

DAalseth said:

slow n easy said:

I'm expecting that at some point in the future, Apple Vision Pro will replace my iPad. That day has not yet arrived, but I'm expecting that it will within the next couple of years. Maybe when we finally get solid-state batteries. The battery issue is my main hesitancy to Apple Vision Pro.
Edited: For Spelling

I’m saying five years, minimum, but same. 

Sure, why not.  I too would like a new way to play solitaire.

The iPad is a toy, replacing it with another expensive toy only makes sense.

Uh, no, no it’s not. 

I use my iPad for about 80% of my computing. That includes things I used to do with my Mac, writing, video editing, etc., because it works just as well. Then there are the things that I do on the iPad, such as drawing and painting, where it works better than my Mac. Far from being a ‘toy’ the iPad has evolved into a powerful computer. Your comment reminds me of the guys I’d run into that insisted that the Mac was a toy and you needed DOS to do real work.

nubus

humbug1873 said:

Is this also one of these design prices where you actually pay the awards organisation money and then they invent a new, fitting category in which this device wins said award?  (At least that is the way the infamous 'red dot design award' usually works).

Red Dot Design Awards awarded every round robovac an award: https://www.red-dot.org/project/roborock-s7-53188. D&AD are known for making their living from entries and for handing them out to large agencies. visionOS does deserve an award. Apple worked hard on doing this. 

9secondkox2

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

slow n easy

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

What you are describing is not VR. It’s not possible to have VR with a pair of sunglasses. It’s not possible to have VR without the complete sealing out of external light.

9secondkox2

slow n easy said:

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

What you are describing is not VR. It’s not possible to have VR with a pair of sunglasses. It’s not possible to have VR without the complete sealing out of external light.

Nonsense. The avp forces your face into vr always. Even what looks like pass through is video. 

Nobody want to wear scuba gear suctioned to their faces just to compute. 

It’s a much better solution to have an optional 9 but included) surround for your shades to rest in when you wants to go full VR. And you can remove when you don’t want to be isolated. Sure beats being stuck inside a helmet whether you want isolated VR or not. I imagine most will ne in XR most of the time as it is. 

Shades (with detachable surround) or helmet. Each has trade offs. One is clearly easier to live with. I’m thinking shades fits the mold of getting out of the way and blending with daily life a million times better. 

Stabitha_Christie

9secondkox2 said:

slow n easy said:

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

What you are describing is not VR. It’s not possible to have VR with a pair of sunglasses. It’s not possible to have VR without the complete sealing out of external light.

Nonsense. The avp forces your face into vr always. Even what looks like pass through is video. 

Nobody want to wear scuba gear suctioned to their faces just to compute. 

It’s a much better solution to have an optional 9 but included) surround for your shades to rest in when you wants to go full VR. And you can remove when you don’t want to be isolated. Sure beats being stuck inside a helmet whether you want isolated VR or not. I imagine most will ne in XR most of the time as it is. 

Shades (with detachable surround) or helmet. Each has trade offs. One is clearly easier to live with. I’m thinking shades fits the mold of getting out of the way and blending with daily life a million times better. 

Nobody wants to?  Hundreds of thousands have been sold. That doesn’t really round down to zero. 

Hat tip for being so committed to your initial point that you will to dive headlong into ridiculous hyperbole rather than just own up to the fact that you really have no clue what you are talking about. 

Xed

9secondkox2 said:

slow n easy said:

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

What you are describing is not VR. It’s not possible to have VR with a pair of sunglasses. It’s not possible to have VR without the complete sealing out of external light.

Nonsense. The avp forces your face into vr always. Even what looks like pass through is video. 

Nobody want to wear scuba gear suctioned to their faces just to compute. 

It’s a much better solution to have an optional 9 but included) surround for your shades to rest in when you wants to go full VR. And you can remove when you don’t want to be isolated. Sure beats being stuck inside a helmet whether you want isolated VR or not. I imagine most will ne in XR most of the time as it is. 

Shades (with detachable surround) or helmet. Each has trade offs. One is clearly easier to live with. I’m thinking shades fits the mold of getting out of the way and blending with daily life a million times better. 

Wow! All this time and you can't understand the difference between VR and AR. 🤦‍♂️

CheeseFreeze

I have an AVP at home, a developer kit version for work, which has an additional USBC connection sticking out for dev purposes.

It is truly an alpha/beta product. It’s really heavy to wear and an unpleasant experience for sessions over 15 minutes. The FOV is the same, perhaps a bit worse, than the Quest 3.
The eye tracking works really well, I love how easy it makes things compared to having to point at each button.
The interface is minimalist, but to a point where you feel lost. It’s not always clear where you can go to or where you came from. 

I just don’t believe in “spatial computing” the way Apple is selling it. Although it’s definitely different from the “Quest 3 one-app-at-a-time” approach akin to mobile phones, I just don’t see people using it because there is no added value. 

Unless Apple starts investing in triple-A games for Mac, iOS/iPadOS and AVP by acquiring game studios and making unique content the same way they invest in AppleTV, they won’t attract an audience if they also don’t have any killer productivity apps to show that leverages the platform.
This is a DOA product.

avon b7

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

They are valid points when taken 'as is'. 

The real difference is that it was designed to be a 'Quest like' device. Or any other visor style device. 

It does it better than a Quest in some ways but that is to be expected given its price tag. 

The Quest could have gone that route too but instead decided to switch out the more costly components in the design to bring the price down. 

In many ways they are very similar but anyone getting either device knows exactly what to expect. 

I don't think it's reasonable to criticise it for being what it was designed to be. 

Sunglasses mean massive miniturisation and without doubt, all devices will aim to be thinner and lighter with every successive generation/price point. 

More importantly though, real world availability and usage will determine how it all plays out. 

The first mobile phones were literally brick sized and heavy with extremely poor battery life. 

9secondkox2

Past winners of the black pencil award were:

the moldy whopper

and

viva la vulva

so….

yeah. Not such a prestigious deal. 

A niche device that is basically a higher spec’s quest with some drawbacks such as battery hanging on a rope that doesn’t move the headset concept forward in any meaningful way. 

Apple sold the vast majority of what they will sell at launch - to staff, developers, and some folks with money to burn who want something different. The hype came. The hype went.  And that’s about it. 

Still looking forward to the shades. 

9secondkox2

Xed said:

9secondkox2 said:

slow n easy said:

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

What you are describing is not VR. It’s not possible to have VR with a pair of sunglasses. It’s not possible to have VR without the complete sealing out of external light.

Nonsense. The avp forces your face into vr always. Even what looks like pass through is video. 

Nobody want to wear scuba gear suctioned to their faces just to compute. 

It’s a much better solution to have an optional 9 but included) surround for your shades to rest in when you wants to go full VR. And you can remove when you don’t want to be isolated. Sure beats being stuck inside a helmet whether you want isolated VR or not. I imagine most will ne in XR most of the time as it is. 

Shades (with detachable surround) or helmet. Each has trade offs. One is clearly easier to live with. I’m thinking shades fits the mold of getting out of the way and blending with daily life a million times better. 

Wow! All this time and you can't understand the difference between VR and AR. 🤦‍♂️

All it takes is an attachment to block out the surround for V8. Better than to be forced into vr all the time even when you don’t want it. 

Definitely solves all the issues of the avp. 

And it was cook who said the future wasn’t Vr but xr. Vr never really took. 

9secondkox2

avon b7 said:

9secondkox2 said:

DOA until it becomes a pair of sunglasses. 

No one wants to wear a helmet  just to compute. 

The experience is not much different than meta quest as-is. 

Apple basically saw the quest, then spec’s higher, but also went backward with the brick battery that you have to carry around separately. Big whoop. 

As sunglasses, it’s much more the Apple ethos of getting out of the way of your life. 

Most folks carry a phone out of habit. Most weat shades as a habit. Most wear a watch, etc. 

no body suctions a face-hogging, head-strapping thing on their face/head outside of scuba divers. It’s annoying, cumbersome, takes you out of your every day life and can really only be enjoyed in bursts. Not as a continuum of your daily life. That’s why it fails. 

Black pencil or no, it’s not a success. 

Let’s see how that fares once it’s distilled into shades. I’m betting that’s a whole new paradigm. 

They are valid points when taken 'as is'. 

The real difference is that it was designed to be a 'Quest like' device. Or any other visor style device. 

It does it better than a Quest in some ways but that is to be expected given its price tag. 

The Quest could have gone that route too but instead decided to switch out the more costly components in the design to bring the price down. 

In many ways they are very similar but anyone getting either device knows exactly what to expect. 

I don't think it's reasonable to criticise it for being what it was designed to be. 

Sunglasses mean massive miniturisation and without doubt, all devices will aim to be thinner and lighter with every successive generation/price point. 

More importantly though, real world availability and usage will determine how it all plays out. 

The first mobile phones were literally brick sized and heavy with extremely poor battery life. 

The first apple power supply, the mouse, etc. all required “massive miniaturization.” That’s what apple does. Invent. Innovate. Better than everyone else. If these other companies can do glasses to the degree they have, you bet apple can step on the gas and do this right. 

If I described the iPhone to you two years prior, you’d have thrown a fit talking how impossible and unrealistic that was. And here we are. Small mindedness is the killer of innovation. 

I do believe we will see shades within a couple years. The scuba style vr headset thing has been done to death and has been proven over and over that’s it’s not what people want. Always niche. 

Once it’s in oakleys etc. or a nic apple design, it will go big.