Macs that might have been —

How Apple’s holistic approach to design began back in 1982

Frog Design founder discusses the creative process that came to define Apple.

The "Baby Mac" concept, designed by Hartmut Esslinger/Frog Design in 1982.
Enlarge / The "Baby Mac" concept, designed by Hartmut Esslinger/Frog Design in 1982.

Hartmut Esslinger—whose name you may not recognize—had a significant impact on Apple in the 1980s. The designer founded the firm Frog Design, which has counted Apple, Sony, NEC, SAP, and Olympus among its clients, and he is credited with helping to define the "snow white" design language that characterized Apple's products beginning with the Apple IIc and early Mac models and carrying on until 1990. But the process of creating that design language eventually transformed Apple from a computer company producing several disparate products into a formidable consumer electronics giant  30 years later.

Esslinger recalls how the initial change happened at Apple in 1982 in his new book, Design Forward: Creative Strategy at the Core of Sustainable Change. The book is set to be released in the US on January 13, but it launched internationally in early December. Online magazine Designboom got an early copy from Esslinger and shared a bit of the story of how Apple first began to make design as a holistic, defining characteristic of the company:

In 1982, Apple was in its sixth year of existence, and Steve Jobs, Apple's cofounder and chairman, was twenty-eight years old. Steve, intuitive and fanatical about great design, realized that the company was in crisis.

"I want Apple's design not just to be the best in the computer industry, but to be the very best in the entire world," Jobs claimed.

With the exception of the aging Apple IIe, the company's products were failing against IBM's PCs. And they were all ugly, especially the Apple III and soon to be released Apple Lisa.

The company's previous CEO, Michael Scott, had created different business divisions for each product line, including accessories such as monitors and memory drives. Each division had its own head of design and developed its products the way it wanted to. As a result, Apple's products shared little in the way of a common design language or overall synthesis.

In essence, bad design was both the symptom and a contributing cause of Apple's corporate disease. Steve's desire to end the disjoined approach gave birth to a strategic design project that would revolutionize Apple's brand and product lines, change the trajectory of the company's future, and eventually redefine the way the world thinks about and uses consumer electronics and communication technologies.

Designboom also has several pictures of various Mac prototypes, like the "Baby Mac" (pictured above) that formed the basis of the "snow white" design language of Apple products throughout the late 80s. Be sure to check out some of the various ideas that Esslinger and Apple explored, including the "Americana" concept (below) that perhaps thankfully never saw the light of day.

The "Americana" design concept for the original Macintosh, inspired by Studebaker automobiles, Electrolux appliances, and the iconic Coca-Cola bottle.
Enlarge / The "Americana" design concept for the original Macintosh, inspired by Studebaker automobiles, Electrolux appliances, and the iconic Coca-Cola bottle.

Channel Ars Technica