Sapper, Stradivarius and Skylight
Back in November of 2008, I first learned of the Lenovo super secret project that would eventually become the Skylight smartbook . It sounded fascinating to me that we would attempt to create an entirely new offering category in the computer space. I could only imagine a device that would behave similar to a smart phone, but be of a size and scale that would make it more suitable for viewing or typing data. The design goal was also to create something that would turn heads. It could not look like just another miniature notebook computer.
I thought it would be a great project to get Richard Sapper, our long time design guru, involved with. After all, Richard has specialized in turning the ordinary into the extraordinary for decades. I’ve seen him do it over and over again with things as seemingly mundane as a desk lamp, cheese grater, tea kettle, kitchen timer, transistor radio, television set, and of course our own ThinkPad classic. When I first proposed the idea to the executive team I was asked by several if Sapper had ever designed a consumer product. Not such a surprising question if your view to Sapper and his work has been through the restricted lens of business computers, but I knew better. I quickly made a Powerpoint slide show of Sapper’s work, to make it clear what he was capable of. It worked. Everyone was intrigued enough to brief him on the project immediately.
Sapper and team discussing design details
On November 12th of 2008 Sapper was in town for a design work session where we took the opportunity to brief him on the super secret project. Sorry I can’t share the code name with you. He had many questions about user scenarios, screen sizes, technologies, and other such design-related details. Sapper was clearly interested in breaking the mold with us. His enthusiasm dimmed, however, when he was informed of the deadline for completing the design concept. The design had to be locked before the Christmas holiday in order to maintain the very aggressive schedule. I think the words Sapper used were “you must be joking, I need time to design such a thing” . The worst part was that it had not been formally decided if Sapper would be retained to create the design. That wouldn’t happen for yet another two weeks at the next Lenovo senior leadership meeting. The timeline issue would only become worse if he had to wait two additional weeks before he had the approval to start working.
The meeting adjourned as promises were passed around the room to speed the process and get more technical details. Of course, Sapper was asked to hang in there with Lenovo and wait for the next decision point. It was later in the day that Sapper, with a gleam in his eye, proposed to me that he would begin designing it immediately, on speculation that he might be retained to do so. For Sapper, there was no time to waste for the final Lenovo decision. How could anyone argue with that? If Lenovo liked his idea, we would compensate him for the work. If they didn’t like it, nothing was lost for Lenovo. The risk was all on Richard’s back. He was confident that he could create something revolutionary, and was willing to bet his own time and expense on doing it. The Sapper plan was quickly agreed to by Lenovo. Now it was up to Richard to deliver his idea by December 18th.
Richard flew to New York City late that evening. The following morning he would travel to Gloucester Massachusetts to visit with close friends. Immediately after the Gloucester visit, he was off to Los Angeles to be with his wife and son for Thanksgiving. How would he ever design anything if he was in hotel rooms, friend’s houses, carving turkeys, and riding airplanes? Designers need tools and time to create design. Sapper clearly understood the dilemma he was faced with. The next day he called me from New York City to describe the sleepless night he had endured as he imagined the design solution. His news was that he had been “kissed by Aphrodite” the night before. For Sapper, that means having the genesis of an idea. How poetic. He had spent the night drawing simple sketches in the hotel to refine his initial idea. He later described the concept verbally as a very thin and sculpted flowing form but not a “glob of pudding”. It had direction and clarity. He also talked about an articulated “stick” that would swing into view for various functions such as storage or a possible telephone handset. For me, that was the icing on the cake. Now all Richard needed was a model to validate his idea in 3 dimensions. Tall order if you are not in your normal work environment.
The infamous “hotel sketch” that defined Skylight
Two days later, I received yet another call from Richard. Now he was in Los Angeles. There was very little chit chat, he went straight to work. “Do you know what I have in my hand?” he questioned. I really had no idea how to respond to that one. “A model!” he declared, instantly answering his own question. How could that be possible I thought? He must have just arrived in California. He told me of being at a cocktail party while in Gloucester, where he mentioned to a friend that he was working on a secret design project. He described how interesting the project was, but that he was frustrated by not being able to get a model built of the idea he had conceived the night before. He was in desperate need of a model. What followed is one of the most incredible strokes of luck ever. His friend suggested that he discuss his need with one of the guests at the party who amazingly enough makes violins and other such instruments. It was reported that he had an elaborate woodworking shop and the skills to match. Surely he could make such a model. After a brief introduction, Richard met him at his shop the next day where he masterfully directed the shaping of a raw block of olive wood into what would become the first model of Skylight.
Stradivarius would be envious
Using the kitchen table at his son’s house and old-school drawing tools, Sapper then created a series of cross sections that were sent back to his studio assistant in Milan. His goal was to create computer generated 3D data and a highly accurate stereo lithography model for his immediate review when he returned to his studio. His plan worked. Once in Milan, he made several revisions to the form and interior leaving just enough time to create a more detailed model for the final review that was now scheduled for December 19th. There was little margin for error.
Early interior study model showing placeholder keyboard and speaker location
On December 15th Sapper again called to say that the model would be finished as promised but that he had no idea how to get it to Raleigh in time for the meeting. There was even some concern expressed about having adequate time for the paint to cure. More on that later. We immediately exercised all various options to get the model from Milan to the meeting but none were very promising. The final solution was to send Robert Enochs to Milan on the 18th to hand carry it back the following morning. Robert, who actually wrote the original marketing requirements document, eagerly agreed to the plan as though he had a choice. After landing in Malpensa, Robert took a taxi to his hotel in Milan, freshened up, and then headed to Sapper’s studio a few blocks away. Richard met him on the street in front of his studio, where he suggested they head to La Torre di Pisa for a nice Risotto dinner before visiting the model maker’s shop. It was nearly 9:00 PM Milan time.
Sophisticated color inspiration
Once at the model shop Robert saw the models, yes there were two, one a beautiful shade of red and the other black. Black was eventually replaced by a nice rich blue. We had enough black computers. Enochs was immediately impressed by how unique the design appeared and equally by how sticky the paint was. It seems there was a paint compatibility issue that never allowed the paint to fully dry. Sapper’s normal painter was already out on holiday. Richard had to scramble to find someone to paint the model. He ended up hiring a rather inexperienced painter that he had never used before. I seem to recall that Richard even had to buy him the paint gun at a local hardware store. I guess that should have been a warning sign. The models were placed into a clever box of Sapper’s design and Robert headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep before catching the morning flight to the states. I called Robert when he returned to the hotel to get his impression of what he saw. He was at a loss for words but groggily described it as “well…VERY unique”. It was well after midnight when Robert called it a day.
Sapper designed the box for the trip home
On Friday evening in Raleigh the executive team anxiously awaited the arrival of Robert Enochs and the model. His plane was about an hour late due to weather issues and people were getting rather anxious. Once Robert landed, he called us on his cell phone to give us a turn by turn status of his continued progress towards Lenovo headquarters. At about 7:30 PM his car was spotted from the design center windows pulling into the parking lot. We were more than ready to see it. Sapper was standing by on the phone to discuss any of the details concerning his work. It was well past midnight Milan time. The cleverly designed Baltic birch box was carefully opened and the models were revealed. Immediately, the reaction was extremely positive, people loved what they saw. Sapper had delivered on the challenge beyond any of our expectations. The most immediate issue was how we were going to remove the bubble wrap texture that had now become impregnated into the forever-sticky paint. The finish looked a lot like a well worn alligator. It was pretty clear that the only alternative was to photograph the models and remove the alligator pattern in Photoshop. Since this all had to take place before Monday we needed a photographer and Photoshop expert the next morning. Not easy to get that done unless your son is a photographer home for the weekend. Who else do you call at midnight to do a photo shoot the next morning? He was more than willing to help and did an expert job of saving the paint disaster. Thanks Eric.
Worn alligator texture or just bad paint?
Photo of the concept models after extensive retouching by my son Eric
Final design is extraordinarily close to the original vision
There was far more to do following this pivotal meeting, but the most important hurdle had been crossed. We had a really marvelous design concept. We still needed to design a keyboard, make everything fit in the envelope, move the speakers around, finalize the touchpad, meet all the schedule commitments, and of course, design a totally new user interface. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it. For me, it’s incredible to see the real thing and compare it to the original Sapper concept model. I’m not sure anything we have ever made has ended up this true to the original idea. In the end, this was a great achievement for all of Lenovo. We had a fantastic team of people from Beijing, Raleigh, Yamato, and of course Milan. I think we truly delivered on the promise of our corporate tagline… New World. New Thinking.
David Hill
Lenovo Meet the Modder Dean Liou
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 2
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 1
Lenovo H320 desktop
January 14th, 2010 11:52 am
[...] get things ready in time for the show. Over at Lenovo’s Design Matters blog they’re unsurprisingly pretty keen on the Lenovo Skylight; however even if you’re not a fan of the smartbook itself you’ll [...]
January 14th, 2010 12:09 pm
What a great back story. You always wonder what goes into the design of new breakthrough products that break the traditional mold. From the moment we saw the first models that we were shown we were blown away. I love how this one came down to the wire, kind of like a big three point shot at the end of a game.
January 14th, 2010 12:36 pm
One of the best posts in a long time. Thanks for the great read.
January 14th, 2010 12:39 pm
[...] the rest of the insightful post at Design Matters SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "David Hill discusses Lenovo Skylight smartbook design", url: [...]
January 14th, 2010 1:08 pm
What a stunning story! Reading about this reminds me of Steve Hamm’s “The Race for Perfect”. It’s because of product design/development stories like that make me feel like I’m buying much more than just a consumer product in a box … I’m buying the fruits of many individuals’ hard labor and ingenuity. Thank you, David, Richard, and the Lenovo team!
January 14th, 2010 1:57 pm
I always love hearing the back story. Would love to hear more about the process you go through for textures, colors, and finishes. I am constantly annoyed by the number of computer and phone products that have glossy (fingerprint collecting) finishes or reflective aluminum highlights. Matte finish (kudos Thinkpad) and brushed metal stay looking nice for longer and affect the consumer’s perception of the quality of the product. Have to say, I have recently been impressed by the Teflon finish on the Nexus One phones.
January 14th, 2010 3:18 pm
[...] get things ready in time for the show. Over at Lenovo’s Design Matters blog they’re unsurprisingly pretty keen on the Lenovo Skylight; however even if you’re not a fan of the smartbook itself you’ll [...]
January 14th, 2010 3:18 pm
Skylight is nothing short of genius. It was one of the Lenovo products we were determined to be unimpressed with at CES.
We just didn’t ‘get it’ at first. We came away from the product demonstration just absolutely stunned.
To see this little beauty in action, to hold it and use it and connect with it, is to become a convert!
January 14th, 2010 3:22 pm
Thanks for the amazing back story. I now have high hopes for this product (before reading this I thought it was just another bog-standard Lenovo non-ThinkPad product). If you get the software right and make this sufficiently lighter/more conventional than an ordinary notebook whilst retaining good ergonomics, it should be an exciting release this year alongside whatever Apple has come up with.
January 14th, 2010 7:35 pm
[...] get things ready in time for the show. Over at Lenovo’s Design Matters blog they’re unsurprisingly pretty keen on the Lenovo Skylight; however even if you’re not a fan of the smartbook itself you’ll [...]
January 14th, 2010 10:07 pm
[...] Para terminar, a história do design do Skylight. [...]
January 14th, 2010 10:13 pm
[...] Lenovo’s Design Matters blog has a detailed account of just how the Skylight got its unique shape. Basically, the company tapped Richard Sapper for the project. He’s the same guy that designed the original ThinkPad. They didn’t give him much time at all — just over a month to come up with a design. Turns out that as far as Lenovo’s concerned, he nailed it, because the finished product looks an awful lot like the prototype. [...]
January 15th, 2010 5:42 am
Another feather to the Lenovo cap…
January 15th, 2010 6:25 am
[...] blog Lenovo è apparso giorni fa un articolo che spiega perché lo Skylight ha una forma così unica. La casa [...]
January 15th, 2010 6:42 am
[...] get things ready in time for the show. Over at Lenovo’s Design Matters blog they’re unsurprisingly pretty keen on the Lenovo Skylight; however even if you’re not a fan of the smartbook itself you’ll [...]
January 15th, 2010 7:10 am
The story is great but I find the final design as attractive as the Tasmanian Devil’s bride. Kind of tough saying this as I find a lot of Sapper’s designs quite attractive.
January 15th, 2010 7:24 am
Yes indeed, a fascinating story about the Skylight product design findings. I believe that’s exactly the sort of design stuff people would expect to read from David, if he tells a little bit more about the inside story of certain Lenovo products.
I was impressed when I read, how Richard Sapper handled the initial design work beside making a bunch of travels and due to last-minute deadlines. And how the team of people worked together in collaboration for this project.
January 15th, 2010 8:58 am
[...] Hier geht’s zum Artikel im Lenovo Design Matters Blog [...]
January 15th, 2010 9:35 am
i want a smartbook but not this one, it’s so ugly
i don’t like the big gap over the screen… it’s like 10cm useless
January 15th, 2010 1:59 pm
Thankyou David, good post. What a wonderful story, such stories makes for excellent reading.
But I still don’t really like the concept. To me, it’s too big and too small at the same time. Won’t fit in your pocket and doesn’t have a proper keyboard. I’m far more interested in a phone-sized thing, if you ever will make one. Bring back the PDA!
Rubberized black square rectangle, multitouch is a must by now, no card – good inbuilt storage, and make that keyboard of yours speak bluetooth… the ThinkPocket would be the ultimate in mobility!
Not a phone, but a computer in your pocket. That makes perfect sense. Well, phone functionality does make sense, too… but there will be space issues.
I would prefer Windows, as always, but the OS of these machines seems okay to me. I need to create and edit, not just read my documents. And that is Word and Excel documents from various versions. Powerpoint would be great, but probably more troublesome than useful. Seemless syncing with Outlook is obviously needed.
USB host functionality seems to be missing on all portable devices. Except the Skylight – but you cant really call it a portable. Is there a good reason for this lacking feature? It would be great to connect to memory sticks, printers, the keyboard – no need for a bluetooth keyboard anymore…
January 15th, 2010 6:36 pm
Thanks! This is one of the best entries I ever have seen in this blog!
January 15th, 2010 8:10 pm
[...] and design and was also instrumental in the design of the original ThinkPad. Here, he shares the creative process in designing Lenovo’s Skylight, a smartbook which wowed us at [...]
January 15th, 2010 8:42 pm
[...] and design and was also instrumental in the design of the original ThinkPad. Here, he shares the creative process in designing Lenovo’s Skylight, a smartbook which wowed us at [...]
January 15th, 2010 11:00 pm
[...] and design and was also instrumental in the design of the original ThinkPad. Here, he shares the creative process in designing Lenovo’s Skylight, a smartbook which wowed us at [...]
January 15th, 2010 11:49 pm
Is that keyboard the same as on the ThinkPad Edge and X100e?
January 16th, 2010 4:51 am
[...] Lenovo’s Design Matters blog has a detailed account of just how the Skylight got its unique shape. Basically, the company tapped Richard Sapper for the project. He’s the same guy that designed the original ThinkPad. They didn’t give him much time at all — just over a month to come up with a design. Turns out that as far as Lenovo’s concerned, he nailed it, because the finished product looks an awful lot like the prototype. [...]
January 16th, 2010 7:37 pm
It’s a beautiful design but I don’t understand the need for this product. It’s less useful than a netbook or a smart phone. I would love to see this design as a proper Win7 netbook.
January 16th, 2010 8:28 pm
@Robert Stein, Speaking for myself (and for my mom), the design and UI of the Skylight seem targeted for users who don’t need a full-fledged experience like that offered by Win7, OS X, or Linux with KDE. From what I see, menus and taskbars are greatly simplified, on-screen choices are those which the user would find most needed on a day-to-day basis. This K.I.S.S. philosophy is something that has been tried with varying levels of success from utter failure (Micrsoft BOB anyone?), to tentative steps (Mac At Ease), and success (iPhone).
@collinm, To each his own I guess. I agree that the top bezel could be narrower, but I guess it’s meant to be a fashion statement. At any rate, let’s see what a man-on-the-street reaction would be like.
Next I’d like to see synching options between this and a desktop PC.
January 17th, 2010 4:33 pm
[...] À lire ici [...]
January 17th, 2010 5:09 pm
Very interesting — thank you for posting this story. I think the design process (and corresponding inspirations) are fascinating and insightful.
I really like the design — I am curious to know if you considered using natural materials for the case. Wood looks fantastic (although not practical), but an aluminum or rubber(ized) case would be interesting too.
January 18th, 2010 10:41 am
Very interesting story.
But, I think that Skylight could be made 20% smaller by removing unconvenient touchpad, relocating speaker, and using trackpoint as pointing device.
January 19th, 2010 9:58 am
[...] think the tale is the best thing we’ve ever published on a corporate blog. I hope you enjoy [...]
January 19th, 2010 10:12 am
“The final solution was to send Robert Enochs to Milan on the 18th to hand carry it back the following morning.”——The last but the most humourous solution,good story.
I’m also interested in the “nice rich blue” one, what a pity you don’t get a picture here.
January 19th, 2010 11:37 am
[...]I quickly made a Powerpoint slide show of Sapper’s work, to make it clear what he was capable of.[...]
Can you share that presentation with us David?
January 19th, 2010 5:08 pm
The use of negative space in design is tricky and often fraught with peril. Regardless of Richard Sapper’s portfolio, the Skylight’s vast, superfluous bevel above the display, especially in contrast to the tight dimensions on either side, make it look like a skinny man with an especially large forehead. In short, it’s ugly.
January 19th, 2010 9:11 pm
I want origami. I want something I can fold into my jacket pocket and unfold into a 17″ display and full size keyboard. With a cell phone on the outside when folded up. And an APL calculator.
tOM
January 19th, 2010 9:16 pm
Ironically, tho the icon for Design Matters is the trackpoint button, the Skylight lacks Trackpoint…
January 19th, 2010 11:13 pm
Make it matte, make it cheaper, then maybe I’ll be interested. X100e is more impressive than this.
January 20th, 2010 12:58 am
This comment bothers me a lot:
“We had enough black computers.”
Seriously?
January 20th, 2010 11:51 am
Sri, only a reference to it not being a ThinkPad. There will never be a day when you can’t buy a black ThinkPad.
January 20th, 2010 11:51 am
Congratulation for delivering something unique. Thank you for posting this story.
January 20th, 2010 1:39 pm
Hi David,
Love the story, was hanging on every word. Very well written!
I like the design, especially the black and red one.
What I don’t like though, but everyone’s a critic, is the size of the LCD display in comparison to the panel.
There is so much unused/wasted space on top.
When I see that in a small form laptop, I feel that if the top would’ve been less rounded (costing maybe about 2% more physical space) the LCD screen could’ve been 20% larger. (higher in this case)
Besides that, great design and lovely story!
January 20th, 2010 2:27 pm
This looks very polished and thought through, fully and completely. The antithesis of a lot of my concerns with the edge.
I’m still not convinced that island keys do much for computers not built with a solid top structure “unibody.” Is there more that you can share on developing keyboard layouts and shapes?
That phase of the design process would be quite fascinating.
January 20th, 2010 9:55 pm
As for the huge space above the screen, to me it makes the unit as a whole more symmetrical because it almost exactly matches the size of the wrist rest in front of the keyboard. Maybe this was deliberate.
January 20th, 2010 10:08 pm
Ray, It was deliberate both from a technology and design perspective. The space is full of very sophisticated antennas and the camera, far from empty. Using a different design would have made the machine much thicker. Sapper also wanted a more human flowing design rather than a square box.
January 22nd, 2010 2:38 am
David,
A lot of people prefer black. It’s somewhere between shortsighted and arrogant to not offer a black version. Blue is definitely not the new black, and given your propensity for appearing in photos wearing nothing *but* black, I have my suspicions where you fall on that scale.
Unless, of course, you *intend* for this to seem like a product aimed at women. Given that it’ll require a purse to carry one, that may be a perfectly sound strategy.
-Sterling
January 22nd, 2010 5:11 am
Why not make the rounded part above the main screen into a logical 2nd screen where you can park your cam view, various toolbars like Quick Launch or Taskbar, or ….. Physically, it could be part of the main screen.
tOM
January 22nd, 2010 7:41 am
[...] http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/?p=3204 [...]
January 28th, 2010 10:11 pm
[...] Hill??Skylight????????“Sapper, Stradivarius and Skylight ”??????Skylight????Richard [...]
January 29th, 2010 2:14 am
[...] Matters?Sapper, Stradivarius and Skylight [...]
January 29th, 2010 2:16 am
[...] of you who read the Design Matters entry about Sapper, Stradivarius and Skylight might already know this, but the Skylight which was such a hot topic at CES is a actually a design [...]
March 13th, 2010 10:28 am
Hi,
I was a Lenovo laptop user before, when i was in China. But right now, I have a HP laptop with me in London. Recently, I notice that lenovo has more stylish laptop than before. I really like the red Skylight. Unfortunately, there are not many people know this brands now in UK. I hope that the company can have more effient marketing strategy in UK, I think the skylight will be another iphone here. I found Lenovo sold in carephonewarehouse store with mobile broadband contract now, but the design is a black, dull netbook, nothing attracts the customers. If skylight is there, there must be a lot of people crowd around. The most important thing for lenove is that how to be a well-known brand same as Apple. You know, there is a big apple store near oxford circus, there are thousands of people visit this store. I recommend that Lenovo has such kind of store at oxford street. And also Cooperating with pcworld and currys. Hopefully, Lenove can be seen anywhere.
Theresa Li
May 6th, 2010 3:59 pm
It has been years since IBM has introduced a product to rival Apple. Again they missed the mark. They should have confided in me , the design would unfold a dual screen with touch screen keys. Have they looked at cell phone lately? I liked the story. but what about giving credit to the Apple ibook computer created a few years ago with similar lines.
May 23rd, 2010 3:47 pm
I don’t know if David Hill is still reading comments on this post, but in the event he is….
David, I always been a fan of Bauhaus and I am something of a Mercedes enthusiast. I’ve read that Richard Sapper did design work for Mercedes, but I have never been able to find out just what he did. You seem to know the man and know a lot about him. Do you know what designs he did for Mercedes?
May 24th, 2010 5:32 am
[...] valmisjoonistamisel oma palga auga välja teeninud (protsessist endast saab lähemalt lugeda siin). Erinevalt tavalisest sülearvutist puuduvad sellel masinal igasugused [...]
May 24th, 2010 7:51 am
Richard, I know for a fact that Sapper designed the bullet shaped rear view mirror for the 300SL.