David Hill

David Wayne Hill is an American industrial designer known for his work on the design of the ThinkPad. His design approach includes the "purposeful evolution" strategy which he conceived for managing the ThinkPad design identity. It served to maintain a consistent and recognizable impression even as features and technology changed. Hill was also an advocate for customer feedback to help guide improvements to designs. He worked as a designer at IBM from 1985 until the 2005 acquisition of their PC business by Lenovo, where he continued until 2017. Afterwards he founded a design consulting business. David holds over 60 issued design and utility patents. He is currently an advisor to the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design, who named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 2018.