It's pretty hard to believe that it was exactly one year ago today that Apple first took the wraps off the iMac and the whole world said, "Whoa." (Actually, the whole world said, "What the hell is that?!", but Apple Marketing decided that phrase was too long for the t-shirts.) There it was, a translucent blue and white space egg, just bursting with enthusiasm as if it just knew that it would be shattering sales records when it would finally reach store shelves three months later. At the time, Jobs quipped that it looked like it came from another world-- one with better designers. Fair enough; the alien designer primarily responsible for the iMac's distinctive form is Jonathan Ive, and we bet that right now he's either happy and excited to see his progeny win yet another design award, or he's just bored with the incessant flow of iMac-related accolades. Regardless, there's now another one to throw on the pile; as MacChat points out, the iMac was this year's only "Gold" winner in the product design category of the British Design & Art Direction awards.

Personally, we expect that Mr. Ive is pleased with the iMac's latest success, not only because the D&AD awards are highly prestigious, but also because they hail from his (supposedly) native England. (We strongly suspect that Ive has also won design awards from whatever planet he's really from, though we're unlikely to hear about that any time soon. But rest assured that his own species considers him a credit to their homeworld.) On top of that, we imagine that he's also tickled pink that the iMac shares the product design spotlight with another consumer appliance that's near and dear to his heart. And cute though it may be, we don't mean the Audi TT Coupé. We're talking about none other than the Space Toilet.

Longtime AtAT fans may recall that Ive has had a long and varied design career, and last September a PC World interview revealed that Ive can in fact list "toilet design" on his extensive résumé. To be sure, Ive went so far as to wax eloquent about the similarities between designing a toilet and creating the iMac: "Just like a toilet, it was important that the function of the iMac as a PC be apparent from its form." And what better toilet to stand proudly with the iMac than the Space Toilet? Sadly, the Space Toilet, with its corner-fitting tank, appears to be so named because it saves space, not because it comes from space. At least, that's what they want you to think... We bet it flushes great in zero gravity.