According to a survey conducted by American Society of Interior Designers ICON magazine, here are ten of the top 25 products that have rocked design in the last 25 years:

1. The Personal Computer: Largely unheard of in 1975, the personal computer has transformed the way design businesses are managed and operated.
2. The Internet: The internet is a landmark resource and tool for everything from global sourcing and marketing, to research, education, networking and client communication.
3. Solid Surfacing: Introduced in the 1980s, solid surfacing eliminated those prominent edges and opened up sophisticated new design possibilities for commercial, residential and retail design.
4. High-Tech/Industrial Style: Brushed aluminum. Copper tubing. Wheeled storage. Open shelving. Once exiled to factories and warehouses, products like these came out of hiding in the late 1970s, and they never looked back.
5. In-floor, Radiant Heating Systems: Common in Scandinavian countries for decades, in-floor heating systems have become increasingly popular in the U.S. over the past 10 ­ 15 years.
6. European-Designed Cabinets, Hardwood and Storage Solutions: Initially driven by the rebuilding of Europe after World War II, the design and mass production of space-conscious, high-style cabinets and standardized hardware made good fixtures affordable to more European consumers, and eventually caught on in America.
7. Return to Natural Textiles: Wildly popular when they were first introduced, synthetic fabrics such as polyester double-knits have fallen from favor in the past 25 years.
8. The High-Tech Chair: The new designs use aerodynamic and ergonomic principles, adjustable controls and space-age materials to transform the formerly humble office seat into an object of desire.
9. Fiberglass and Foam: With early applications pioneered by Disney Company, fiberglass and foam entered the industrial and interior design market in force during the 1970s/
10. Microfibers: The durability and nonplastic good looks of a new generation of microfibers have created myriad design options for drapery, upholstery and accessories.
11. Steelcase’s Pathways Office: Designed for new-era, rapidly changing office environments, this system is an all-inclusive set of modules that allow designers to start in an empty, open space and transform it into an office.
12. Frank Gehry’s House: In 1978, American architect Frank Gehry expanded and renovated an ordinary California bungalow in an extremely unconventional way with chain-link fencing, corrugated cardboard and exposed wall studs.
13. Lo-voltage Halogen Lights: In work and display areas or under kitchen cabinets ­ today, designers tuck halogen lamps everywhere, and take their clear, controllable, shadow-free light for granted.
14. Healthy Home and Green Products: From low-VOC paints to recycled, hypoallergenic carpeting and organic textiles, a whole new category of earth and human friendly products has emerged.
15. Herman Miller’s Action Office: The flexible and highly adaptable Action Office concept ­ which included a chair on wheels, interlocking tables and stackable shelf sections ­ has proven highly visionary.
16. Recycled Architectural Elements: Old porch columns, stone and iron building elements, Victorian gingerbread trim and leaded windows ­ these are just a few of the architectural-salvage elements being brought inside and given new life.
17. Pacific-Rim Influence: Not just Asian-inspired palettes, motifs or themes that have taken hold, we are being influenced by entire design sensibilities and philosophies from Zen minimalism to Feng Shui.
18. High-Design Kitchen Appliances: Judging from the proliferation of hidden refrigerators and proudly out-front industrial stoves, clients are naturally inclined to camouflage some appliances and spotlight others.
19. Urban Preservationist Movement: Formerly appreciated by starving artists, reclaimed warehouse and industrial loft spaces grew much more popular among the upwardly mobile in the past 20 years.
20. Shrinking Electronics: Growing smaller year by year, electronic equipment has made its way into lots of new spaces and applications over the past decade.

Transforming Tomorrow

No matter how hard we try, we don’t always get it right. Hope you will enjoy these marketing blunders from large corporations. Perhaps they’ll help you be less tentative about making mistakes on the road to market successes.

• The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, Ko-kou-ko-le, which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."
• In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan, "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."
• In China, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan, "finger-lickin’ good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
• When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" means "it won’t go." After the company figured out why it wasn’t selling cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to Caribe. Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals." Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.
• When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say, "It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you." However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said, "It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
• An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of the desired "I saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I saw the Potato."
• Chicken-man Frank Perdue’s slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," got terribly mangled in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused."
• Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in slang, means "big breasts." In this case, however, the name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.
• Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
• In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
• Japan’s second-largest tourist agency was mystified when it entered English-speaking markets and began receiving requests for unusual sex tours. Upon finding out why, the owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist Company changed its name.