'It’s not red, it’s magenta': How ThinkPad designers gaslit IBM to save the iconic TrackPoint
“It’s not red,” IBM’s design center manager patiently explained. “It’s magenta.”
The safety function officer wasn’t buying it. Between his fingers, he held up a small, rubbery disc that looked like a pencil eraser. “You know it’s red and I know it’s red,” he said.
The design manager didn’t back down. He insisted that what the man held was indeed magenta. The safety officer called his boss. The boss called Tom Hardy, Design Program Director at IBM. Hardy didn't flinch.
“It’s not red. It’s magenta.”
It was one of the boldest lies ever told in tech. And it made the ThinkPad iconic.
Years later, Hardy relayed the incident in an interview with Laptop Retrospective, detailing the design origins of the TrackPoint, the input stick resting in a central position of the ThinkPad keyboard since 1992.
Instantly recognizable today, the little red nub remains core to the ThinkPad’s identity. For anyone...
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