Excellence in design has always been a fundamental prerequisite and certainly an integral part of the ethos and culture that Steve Jobs has cultivated at Apple since the foundation of the Cupertino company back in April 1976.

Apple has won countless awards for it's design, and it has just added to the already crowded trophy cabinet by picking up two more of the much coveted D&AD Black Pencil's for the sleek minimalism of the iMac and iPhone. This means that Apple has now won six of the prestigious Black Pencil design awards making it the single most successful company in the events 45 year history.

The D&AD is an international competition that awards the best-of-the-best in design across many different disciplines and is known to be one of the highest accolades that any designer, or company can achieve.

The top award of a Black Pencil is notoriously difficult to achieve - at six previous D&AD ceremonies none has been given out, the most recent being the 2003 awards. This makes winning one all the more coveted.

"One of the things that makes D&AD credible is they won't give an award if the work isn't good enough," said Jonathan Ive, the chief designer at Apple.

It is great to see excellent design being rewarded and a clear indication once again that though many companies, particularly in the computer hardware industry, have tried to cut corners when it comes to the design and aesthetics, it seems only fitting that one of the original pioneers, which has stubbornly adhered to it's core design principles, blending elegance of form and sublime function, is being internationally recognized for raising the bar in just about every department.

The cream, thankfully, always rises to the top.