Why do we feel like we need to keep revisiting the archetype over and over and over again? Digital cameras for example, in which their format, proportion, the fact that they’re horizontal rectangles, are modeled off the original silver film camera. So, in turn it’s the film that defines the shape of the camera.
All of a sudden our digital cameras have no film. So why on earth do we have the same shape we have? (via Karim Rashid: Inspiring a new way of thinking: idsgn (a design blog))
I agree, but if you look at some of the cameras from the late 90s (a great resource is dpreview.com), you’ll see some really wacky, not very camera-looking ones. Most of them didn’t succeed. As much as anything else, that shape says “camera” to consumers, so they want it. Other designs look like toys, not tools, to them…
