Confessions of a Retro-Tech geek.

First up, old telephones!

This image is taken from another webpage of mine.

All that gear averages about 20 years old. Likely, it'll outlive me.

If the power goes out, the only thing that won't work is the Speakerphone.

I really like the design aesthetic of Western Electric consumer gear from the mid 70s.

The telephone was designed by Henry Dreyfuss, one of the most influential industrial designers of the 20th Century. For something as utilitarian as a telephone, it is a masterpiece of human interface design.

Take, for example, the keypad. The white characters on a grey button provides a readable images in almost any lighting conditions. The "dished" surface is not only more comfortable to use, it both keeps the finger from slipping off the button, and the concavity all but eliminates glare from bright lights from almost any direction.

Save for the actual keypad, there is barely a set of parallel lines to be seen. Everything is gradual curves and radiused corners. Beautiful!