Most of us don’t know who was Bill Moggridge. Cofounder of Ideo, inventor of the first laptop computer, author of the seminal work on interaction design, educator, and winner of a slew of international design awards… But as a city full of designers and design-lovers was quick to discover, rarely has such an illustrious bio been animated by such a delightful person. Bill, who passed away from cancer on September 8th 2012, embraced the city with the enthusiasm of a kid from the boonies, fresh off the bus.
He was everywhere: hosting design breakfasts with business leaders, leading panels with design luminaries, throwing parties at the Cooper-Hewitt’s grand mansion on Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile, presiding over National Design Awards luncheons at the White House with Michelle Obama and the head of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough. Moggridge’s most influential piece of design: The GRiD Compass computer (1981), which was the world’s first laptop and the beginning of the now-ubiquitous clamshell typology.
He was determined to bring his love and understanding of design to a wider audience, and to re-make the Cooper-Hewitt, an under-recognized cog of the Smithsonian fleet of museums, into a world leader in design education and appreciation. Just like Steve Jobs, we will miss this beautiful mind…