Apple Industrial Design Group
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The Apple Industrial Design Group is the industrial design department within Apple Inc. responsible for crafting the physical appearance of all Apple products. The group was established so that Apple could design more products in-house, rather than relying on external design firms. Steve Jobs wanted to be a part of the design process more than was practical to do when utilizing external design agencies, and the in-house design group allowed for changes to be made more efficiently - all while making it easier to maintain the secrecy of upcoming projects.
History
Apple Industrial Design was established in April 1977 when
In addition to the Apple II, Manock came to manage Apple Design Guild which consisted of a loose band of in-house designers, among them Bill Dresselhaus—responsible for the Lisa—and Rob Gemmell—responsible for the Apple IIe and IIc. It was from this group that a project called "Snow White" emerged. The importance that Jobs put on appearance led to a desire to begin the search for a "world-class" designer or design team to give Apple a unique and uniform design language. It was Manock's suggestion that it be made a contest. The company proceeded to solicit designers from the pages of magazines.[2]
Frog Design
It was out of this contest that
The original
Reformation
By the early 1990s, Apple discovered that the Snow White language that had served them so well through the 80s was being copied by its generic IBM PC competitors, causing Apple to lose some of its unique identity. With the move away from Frog Design, Apple chose to bring all industrial design in-house by creating the Apple Industrial Design Group, headed by Robert Brunner except for portable computer devices design projects led by Kazuo Kawasaki. Though many of the new designs reflected the legacy of Esslinger's Snow White language, the new design group began to rapidly move in its direction, which can be clearly seen in landmark products of the Espresso language such as the Macintosh Color Classic.[6] The list of innovative designs which clearly defined Apple products in the marketplace continued through the 90s.
Return of Steve Jobs
The return of Steve Jobs in 1997 along with the appointment of designer
The successive design language adopted by Apple can be split into two aspects: a white or black color scheme, usually with a glossy texture and plastic cases; and a
Resignation of Jonathan Ive
Jonathan Ive left Apple and started his new design office LoveFrom with Marc Newson.[8] Evans Hankey is the head of hardware design at the design group since June 2019.[9] Apple announced on October 21, 2022, that Hankey would depart the company, but she'll remain at the company for a temporary period, as Apple has no replacement for Hankey.
Apple designers
Designer | Dates |
---|---|
Bill Dresselhaus | 1979–1983 |
Terry Oyama | 1980–1983 |
Rob Gemmell | 1981–1989 |
Gavin Ivester | 1987-1992 (1981-1992) |
Hartmut Esslinger | 1982–1989 |
Richard Jordan | 1978–1990 |
Jim Stewart | 1980–1984, 1987–1994 |
Ray Riley | 1988-1995 |
Robert Brunner | 1989–1997 |
Susanne Pierce Maddux | 1990-1996 |
Kazuo Kawasaki | 1990–1991 |
Masamichi Udagawa | 1992–1995 |
Daniele De Iuliis | 1989–2019[10] |
Sir Jonathan Ive |
1992–2019 |
Christopher Stringer | 1997–2017[11] |
Eugene Whang | 1999–2021 |
Shin Nishibori | 2002–2012 |
Rico Zorkendorfer | 2004–2019[10] |
Miklu Silvanto | 2011–2019[10] |
Julian Honig | 2010–2019[10] |
Marc Newson | 2014–2019 |
Richard Howarth | 1996[12]–present |
Evans Hankey | –2023[13] |
Shota Aoyagi | –2023[14] |
Molly Anderson | –present[15] |
Timeline of Apple products
Timeline of Apple Inc. products
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See also
- Design language
- Human interface guidelines
- AppleTalk Connector Family
- Susan Kare
- Apple Inc. design motifs
References
- ^ "History of computer design: Apple II". www.landsnail.com.
- ^ "History of computer design: frogdesign". www.landsnail.com.
- ^ Nye, Sean. "Hartmut Esslinger". Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- ^ "History of computer design: Apple IIc". www.landsnail.com.
- ^ Kunkel, Paul, AppleDesign: The work of the Apple Industrial Design Group, with photographs by Rick English, New York: Graphis, 1997, p.
- ^ Kunkel, Paul (August 24, 2000). "A Long-Discontinued Macintosh Still Thrills Collectors to the Core". The New York Times. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
- ^ John Arlidge (March 17, 2014). "Jonathan Ive Designs Tomorrow". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
- ^ Hardy, Ed (June 27, 2019). "Meet the first woman to head up Apple's famous Industrial Design team". Cult of Mac. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Gallagher, William (May 3, 2019). "Apple's famous design team now has no original members left". AppleInsider. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
- ^ Ghosh, Shona. "Apple has lost one of its most important designers". Business Insider. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
- ^ "Apple Leadership - Richard Howarth - Apple". May 29, 2017. Archived from the original on May 29, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
- ^ "Apple's Industrial Design Chief Hankey to Leave Three Years After Ive - Apple". Bloomberg News. February 17, 2023.
- ^ "Apple's iPhone Design Chief Enlisted by Jony Ive, Sam Altman to Work on AI Devices". Bloomberg.com. December 26, 2023. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
Shota Aoyagi, another member of Ive's storied industrial design team at Apple, has also exited. He just started at LoveFrom.
- ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved January 24, 2024.