[Macwoburn] Fwd: The secret of Apple Design

[macwoburn at macwoburn.org]

Message 9       05/09/2007    05:27
Subject: The secret of Apple Design
From:  Vedder A. Wright
To:  BBBS

from http://www.macrumors.com/, the posting "Inside Apple's Industrial
Design"

[ http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/18621/ ]Technology review has an
interesting article looking into Apple's design  process with a focus on
Steve Jobs who is said to have established the company's focus on
industrial design.

The article interviews Mark Rolston, senior vice president of creative at
Frog Design, who has worked with Apple as a design  partner.

"Jobs wanted to elevate Apple by using design." Jobs, he says, not only
cared personally about design but saw that it could be  a way to
differentiate his company's products from the PCs of the day, which often
looked little evolved from hobbyist boxes.

Unlike design work for a company such as Packard Bell where the casedesign
comes together at the last moment, Apple has a  significant interest in
product design throughout the process. Apple is said to take "an amazing
interest in material  selection and how things are manufactured" to the
point where they are constantly looking for new design processes and
willing  to retool a factory to accomplish their goals.

Brunner estimates that today Apple spends 15 to 20 percent of its
industrial-design time on concept--far more than most other  computer
companies--and the rest on implementation

Apple also keeps design teams small to try to minimize feature creep and a
maintain a minimalist design.
"They're a small team that takes a very, very hands-on approach," adds
Rolston. "We do a lot of similar products for other  companies--say, Sony.
But the process of approval, and collaboration generally--for everything
from shape to  engineering--involves tons of people, taking up to 50
percent of the time, watering it down." What makes Apple Apple and not 
Sony, says Rolston, is clarity of voice and vision.




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