Design motifs used by Apple since its inception
Apple Inc.
products has had various design motifs since its inception. Recent motifs were mainly developed under the collaboration of
Steve Jobs
and
Jony Ive
beginning in 1997, radically altering the previous Apple computer designs.
Snow White
[
edit
]
The Snow White design language was developed by
Hartmut Esslinger
's
Frog Design
, and was used from 1984 to 1990. The
Apple IIc
was the first Apple product to use the design language. Snow White is characterised by its heavy use of vertical and horizontal lines for both decoration, ventilation and to create the illusion that the computer casings were smaller than they actually were. The colour palette mostly consisted of light gray (Platinum) and off-white (fog). Other motifs include minimal surface texturing and an inlaid three-dimensional Apple logo which was diamond cut to the exact shape. The last Apple product to use the Snow White design language was the
Macintosh IIfx
which was released in 1990.
The Snow White design language established Apple as a design leader in the consumer electronics industry. It set trends for the computer industry as well as changing the industry's perception of how computers are designed and manufactured.
Translucency
[
edit
]
This first phase appeared in 1997 with the
eMate
, followed in 1998 with the release of the
Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One
and the original
iMac
. This motif was later applied to the first
iBook
models released in 1999, and the blue-and-white
Power Mac G3
and their accompanying Studio Displays. The design was characterised by
translucent
surfaces with either a candy-like or milky-white coloring and soft, bulging contours. Subdued vertical
pinstripes
were made to show through the translucent faces of these products. Printed on the back panel for ports and agency approval marks was a
lenticular
plaque that contains a wavy 3D pattern. AC power cords were also translucent, with the twisted wires visible within them.
The translucency and colors in this style appear to have been inspired by
gumdrop
candies, and Ive reportedly visited
confectionery
plants to learn to replicate the gumdrop's visual effect. Ive and his team went on to develop novel manufacturing techniques in order to build products based on this design motif.
[1]
Only the
PowerBook G3
was uninfluenced by the translucent style (with the exception of a translucent, bronze-colored keyboard on the
Lombard and Pismo models
), and retained its opaque black casing until it was replaced by the
Titanium PowerBook G4
in 2001.
In 2013,
iOS
went through a major redesign with the release of
iOS 7
in September. Much of the refreshed UI had a translucent effect, noticeable in places like the Notification Center, Control Center, the multitasking screen, and Apple's Remote app for iOS.
OS X
went through a major redesign in 2014 which was similar to iOS 7, with the release of
OS X Yosemite
. Yosemite's refreshed UI had translucent effects seen in the Dock, the user login window, Notification Center, and in the Safari web browser.
Colors
[
edit
]
The candy color on the first iMac model is called "
Bondi blue
", a reference to the color of the water at
Sydney
's
Bondi Beach
.
[2]
[3]
The "Bondi blue" iMac was replaced with five fruit colors in January 1999: "Blueberry" (a bright blue); "Grape" (purple); "Tangerine" (orange); "Lime" (green); and "Strawberry" (pinkish red). Two of these, "Tangerine" and "Blueberry", became the first colors for the iBook.
[4]
Blueberry was also the color for the Blue and White Power Mac G3 and its displays. These candy colors heralded a trend in consumer goods where everything from clock radios to hamburger grillers sported bright plastic translucent enclosures.
In late 1999, the iMac's fruit colors were joined by a quieter color scheme called "Graphite", in which the colored elements were replaced with a smoky grey and some of the white elements were made transparent. Graphite was the color of the iMac Special Edition models, and the first Power Mac G4. Next came "Ruby" (dark red), "Sage" (forest green), "Indigo" (deep blue) and "Snow" (milky white) in 2000. The iBooks' colors were also updated: Blueberry was replaced with Indigo, Tangerine was replaced with Key Lime (an eye-popping neon green), and Graphite was added at the high end. In 2001, two new color schemes were introduced: "Flower Power" and "Blue Dalmatian." "Flower Power" was white with flowers, and "Blue Dalmatian" was a blue similar to the original "Bondi blue", but with white spots. The "Snow" color scheme was also used on the second generation
iBook
.
After 2001, Apple's products shifted to a predominantly white and silver color scheme. In 2004, the
iPod Mini
was launched in five colors: silver, blue, green, pink and gold. The midrange and budget iPods would continue to be offered in several colors, as would the later
iPhone 5c
.
[5]
In 2021, color returned to their desktop line, with the
Apple silicon iMac
offered in seven colors: green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver.
[6]
Minimalism
[
edit
]
In 2001, Apple designs shifted away from multicolored translucency and began two new design branches. The professional motif appeared with the
PowerBook G4
, and featured industrial grade metal: first titanium, then aluminum. The
minimalist
consumer design debuted with the
iBook G3
, and featured glossy white coloring and opaque finishes. Both lines did away with soft, bulging shapes and moved toward streamlined, orthogonal, minimalist shapes. The designs appear to have been heavily influenced by German industrial designer
Dieter Rams
,
[7]
with a clear example being the
iPhone
calculator application, which appears to have been directly influenced by Dieter Rams' 1978 Braun Control ET44 calculator.
[8]
The
iPod
continued the look of the consumer line, featuring an opaque, white front. The success and wide embrace of Apple's iPod appeared to have had an effect on Ive and his design team, and some noted the striking similarity of the iPod's design with the subsequent
iMac G5
and
Mac mini
designs. Apple even promoted the release of the iMac G5 as coming "from the creators of iPod," and, in the accompanying promotional photographs, both products were shown next to each other in profile, highlighting the similarities in their design.
[9]
The newer generations of
AirPort Extreme
, 2012 model of
AirPort Express
,
Apple TV
, and iPhone designs have continued this trend toward a simple rounded-rectangle styling across product lines.
Dark aluminium
[
edit
]
The more recent designs move away from white plastics, replacing them with glass and aluminium.
This new design phase showed Apple's strive towards extreme minimalism: aluminium "unibody" products possess cleaner, yet softer and more tapered edges than those of their predecessors, and remove anything that "does not need to be there," creating an extremely clean surface. The first generation iPhone debuted this new style, showing off darker aluminium on its back and a glass front. The design was then carried over to the iMac line, which now consists mostly of aluminium face, except for a black rim around the screen, and a glass covered screen. The
iPod Classic
brought this motif to the iPod line, and featured a dark, aluminium face. The
MacBook Air
blends the aluminium styling of the
MacBook Pro
line with the new style pattern through its keyboard and glossy display. On October 14, 2008 Apple released a redesigned MacBook Pro in line with this style direction. Like the MacBook Air before them, the chassis of the new MacBook Pro is milled from a single piece of aluminium, this 'unibody' construction is aimed to reduce chassis size and the number of chassis parts required, along with increasing chassis rigidity. In early 2010, Apple's new
iPad
continued this trend, enforcing a minimalist device to give a focus on content, not hardware.
Slate
[
edit
]
Even more recently in late 2012, Apple has been shown to be moving towards a more brushed slate texture, with diamond-cut chamfered edges. This was evidenced by the iPhone 5 and iPad mini respectively. The benefits of this new slate style are that the devices are more easily gripped and they cannot be scratched as easily. Analysts speculated that Apple might release a full sized iPad with this same slate style in 2013, and this was confirmed with the release of the
iPad Air
on November 1, 2013. The slate design continued with the introduction of the
MacBook
in 2015, and reinforced with the redesigned
MacBook Pro
and
MacBook Air
lineups, in amino acids.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
iMac 1998 - Johnathan Ive on Apple - Design, Architecture and Fashion - Design Museum London
Archived
June 12, 2010, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"The home in 50 objects from around the world #34: the iMac G3 Bondi Blue PC (1998)"
.
Financial Times
. June 17, 2022
. Retrieved
February 5,
2023
.
- ^
Ojeda-Zapata, Julio (June 22, 2021).
"Mac color is back: Apple's new iMacs are a rainbow, just like the 1990s originals"
.
Twin Cities
. Retrieved
February 5,
2023
.
- ^
Muskaan Saxena (January 25, 2023).
"I love the new MacBooks, but they badly need a dash of iBook color"
.
TechRadar
. Retrieved
February 5,
2023
.
- ^
Wilson, Mark (September 9, 2013).
"Apple's Untold History Reveals Why The iPhone 5C Will Be In Color"
.
Fast Company
. Retrieved
May 1,
2024
.
- ^
Kastrenakes, Jacob (April 20, 2021).
"Apple announces thinner iMac with M1 chip and bright colors"
.
The Verge
. Retrieved
May 1,
2024
.
- ^
Flankenlauf | Journal |Dieter Rams und Apple
Archived
May 17, 2009, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Great Artists Steal: Is that a Braun ET44 in Your iPhone?
- ^
Apple - Photos - iMac G5
Archived
August 20, 2014, at the
Wayback Machine
|
---|
|
Products
| |
---|
Services
| Financial
| |
---|
Media
| |
---|
Communication
| |
---|
Retail and
digital sales
| |
---|
Support
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
|
---|
Companies
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
- Italics
indicate discontinued products, services, or defunct companies.
- Category
|