The GRIZ Sextant is an expression of my love of 80s computers. But what computers exactly? There is a multitude of wild machines from the 80s to choose from but in the end, I ended up choosing a somewhat surprising choice as my design inspiration, the GRID Compass.

It is difficult to properly describe my fascination with 80s computers. As a child of the 90s I did not grow up with Commodore or Tandy machines and did not pick up a mouse and keyboard until the Windows 95 era. So why the obsession with machines for an era I was not alive to see?

For me personally, there are multiple reasons. First, as someone who works in engineering and product design, I am fascinated by the design effort that went into machines before the era of computer aided design. I do not know what I would do without Solidworks in my day-to-day engineering life so the thought of designing a complex piece of consumer electronics without CAD is both awe inspiring and horrifying. Second, like many in the Cyberdeck community I am drawn to the styling’s of 80s products.

Petrolicious on Youtube features a video about the Lamborghini Countach and claims it comes from a time ‘When Outrageous was Possible’. I think this same sentiment can be applied to the computers of the 1980s.