Microsoft isn’t known for its collaborations, just as London department store Liberty isn’t known for its technological nous. This new collaboration combines the power-packed Surface Pro 9 with Liberty’s rich history of textile design to create a laptop that’s destined to stand out from the pack.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition was created to celebrate ten years of the Microsoft Surface line, the unexpectedly excellent family of transformable tablets and laptops that has put Microsoft back in the top tier of hardware manufacturers.
The collaboration was unexpected and fortuitous, after Liberty’s lead designer, Adam Herbert, met Microsoft’s principal designer, Elliott Hsu, and decided to form an alliance.
The end result is inspired in part by the graphic language of Windows 11, with its animated ‘floral bloom’ desktop wallpaper.
The result is a laptop with an engraved floral design on its keyboard and case, a special-edition Microsoft Surface x Liberty print that blends the Microsoft bloom with Liberty’s 150 years’ experience of working with artists and designers on fabrics and textiles.
‘We started to do very loose line drawings of the Bloom, and really started to think about a virtually created flower but translated it into a Liberty print,’ says Herbert, ‘We took something that was created in a very modern, cutting-edge way, but then [redrew] it into something that is Liberty. And I think that was a really exciting juxtaposition.’
Microsoft Surface Family, 2022
There’s also a desktop theme that references the collaboration, and this special edition of the Surface Pro 9 comes complete with the optional keyboard and Slim Pen 2. The hybrid device is powered by Intel’s new Evo 12th Gen processor and offers over 15 hours of battery life.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Liberty Special Edition, complete with Surface Pro Liberty Keyboard and Slim Pen 2, from £1,099.99, available from Microsoft store and Liberty
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