Sony ICF-SW1 radio - Gizmo
In 1988, if you wanted to know what was really happening in the world, you listened to shortwave. The BBC World Service, Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Deutsche Welle - these broadcasts cut through propaganda and censorship, reaching listeners behind the Iron Curtain, in remote villages, anywhere a radio could pick up a signal bouncing off the ionosphere. Sony made a receiver that could tune them all in, and fit in your shirt pocket.
The ICF-SW1 measured just 120 x 71 x 23mm - about the size of a cigarette packet - yet covered everything from long wave through medium wave to the entire shortwave spectrum up to 30 MHz, plus FM stereo through headphones. A microprocessor-controlled frequency synthesiser let you punch in the exact frequency you wanted via a numerical keypad, then store ten favourites in memory. The LCD showed your precise position on the dial, anywhere from 150 kHz to nearly 30 MHz.
This was a tool for the informed traveller, the foreign correspondent, the business executive who needed to know what governments weren't saying. In hotel rooms from Tokyo to São Paulo, the ICF-SW1 could pull in broadcasts that local media wouldn't touch. Sony marketed it as the complete system - receiver, active antenna, mains adapter, all nested in a compact carrying case. The whole world, packaged for your briefcase.
From the Gizmo collection - a series of prints adapted from Simon Tyler's forthcoming book Gizmo: Retro-Tech We Loved and Lost, published by Laurence King in May 2026.
Produced as an open-edition print on 250gsm archival matte paper, with crisp detail and rich colour faithful to the original illustration.
Gizmo Series
Gizmo gathers illustrations adapted from and inspired by founder Simon Tyler's forthcoming book Gizmo: Retro-tech We Loved and Lost, published by Laurence King in May 2026.
The series is a visual archaeology of consumer electronics - the machines that shaped how we listened, watched, played, and worked from the 1960s to the early 2000s. Synthesizers that invented entire genres. Cameras that democratised photography. Computers that launched industries from bedroom desks. Boomboxes that soundtracked city blocks. Each one arrived as the future and departed as nostalgia, often within a single decade.
Every illustration begins with extensive photographic research - sourcing original imagery of each machine in its best light - and builds toward a clean, considered portrait that honours the object's design intent. The aim is not retro sentimentality but honest observation: what made these machines distinctive, how they looked when they were new, and why their forms still resonate.
Printed with the same archival care as our other series, Gizmo turns industrial design history into crisp, enduring graphic art.
Printing & Materials
Our Gizmo series is produced in collaboration with specialist fine-art printing partners using museum-grade 250 gsm archival giclée paper.
Each print is made to order with exceptional precision and colour accuracy, using pigment-based inks for long-term stability and rich tonal depth.
Prints are carefully rolled in acid-free tissue and shipped in rigid cardboard tubes to ensure they arrive in perfect condition, ready for framing.
All materials and processes are chosen for their longevity, texture, and fidelity to the original artwork, reflecting our commitment to quality and craft.