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Apple design, old vs. new

By Rain Noe - October 15, 2008

in Object Culture

It's not that we dislike having smaller, sleeker objects, but with Apple's announcement yesterday of new laptops, we couldn't help but notice how small the visual difference is between this generation and the last. Why? Because as objects get "tighter," well, there's simply less to design. Everything goes into the details; broad design strokes seem to fade in importance.

To see what we mean, hit the jump and take a look at these older Apple products, manufactured during a time when there was still enough meat on the product to hang some design onto, so to speak.

Vintage Apple photos by Flickr user The Nixer.

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TheNixer

16 years ago

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I agree with the article and the first post from Rob. The lamp shade iMacs were amazing aesthetically speaking. I think it goes back further than that though. Old TV's, refrigerators and stoves had style and charm and weren't built as throw-aways. Even these laptops are throwaways in a matter of years and there's absolutely no charm to them what so ever. I find that important, it shows there's a personality behind that product and an important history.

I'm happy to see my photos here and would have given you the okay to do so - especially considering the content of the article - but these are ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You should have asked first.

[Ed: We apologize for the oversight and have graciously been given permission by the photographer.]
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Sonny

16 years ago

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Actually designing the simplest, most essential product is hardest thing to do! It's great to see that Apple made a genuine effort to reduce parts and make their laptops even more sensible, instead of wasting time on drawing unnecessary designlines and dumb styling! Less 'Sketch Monkey', more design intelligence.

The new Macbooks are nothing short of revolutionary for me! Not in terms of design aesthetics but in terms of production process. Milling has been around for a while (for rapid prototyping, tooling, rims etc.) but this is the first time it is done for consumer electronics!
Apple now needs far fewer molds and can more easily & rapidly incorporate changes. And if each Macbook is milled you could theoretically have a really customized part! Imagine uploading a design and getting it milled.
People have been talking about it for ages and Apple just took the first step!
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David Malouf

16 years ago

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Ah! but the shift is that less ID is being spent and more IxD is being spent. The software has to support more and more of the visceral aesthetic experience of the product to hold the person's engagement.

Forget the laptops and desktops. The real extreme here is their iPhone and similar competitor products, right?

Alternatively, is having less material to design against, also mean that there are just harder design decisions to make? But the same number of decisions/elements are still possible?
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Rob

16 years ago

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Long time Apple user here...but disappointed that they moved away from the lampshade form factor of the G4 iMac to the pedestal style current one. The older one was far superior, in terms of usability, screen adjustment, and comfort. The new one, although faster and more modern, lacks height and rotating adjustments. It was probably too expensive to keep manufacturing.
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