BlackBerry Passport, once called an “ugly duckling”, wins posh design award

It was derided as “wide and unwieldy”, as looking like a “giant square drink coaster” and as an “ugly duckling”, but BlackBerry may be having the last laugh over would-be style aficionados.

The BlackBerry Passport has won one of the world’s most prestigious design awards, the Red Dot Award for product design.

“The BlackBerry Design Team is honoured to accept the prestigious Red Dot: Best of the Best Product Design Award for the BlackBerry Passport,” said Alison Phillips, the company’s Managing Director and Head of Industrial Design. “The value of design comes through when technology and new ideas can be turned into meaningful products that users connect with. This innovative product was a collaboration of many teams coming together to deliver a new design icon for BlackBerry.”

Founded in 1955 by Germany’s Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, the Red Dot Awards received more than 15,500 submissions in 2014. Awards are presented in three categories: design team of the year, communication design and design concept. Past winners include Nikon, Reebok and Kia.

From the time it was released, the BlackBerry Passport provoked contrasting opinions. The company said this was by design.

“We weren’t looking for comfort,” CEO John Chen told the Globe and Mail. “It had to stand out and be strong. The design had to be aggressive. Love it or hate it, it had to be polarizing.”

After initially selling out of the first 200,000 Passports, sales appear to have trickled off. A March note from Morgan Stanley said the device was “underselling”.

Below: The Design Story Behind the BlackBerry Passport

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