5:06PM October 6 2011
Steve Jobs’ vision and how it transformed us
Steve Jobs’ company and his vision have transformed our professional and personal lives. The thing that strikes us about Apple products, aside from the slavish devotion they inspire, is that many of us remember the first time we saw one. The first encounter with Apple was a first encounter with the power of design, technology and brands. Steve Jobs was not alone in making this a reality, but his charisma and vision were an essential part of the innovation that lies at the heart of Apple.
The first Mac I ever saw was in my housemate’s room in university. She had the Macintosh Classic and even though by then it was a few years old, it still made my new PC look clunky and limiting in comparison. It hadn’t occurred to me that such a functional item could be engaging and fun until that point.
Nick had a similar experience, when his sister’s boyfriend at the time brought a Macintosh SE home: ‘I was kind of flabbergasted about it, but I don’t really know why. I liked the logo, but didn’t understand why it had to be an apple, or that it was multicoloured. Was this my first foray in to examining a brand? Still…it was cool and I was much more interested in learning how to type on it rather than the huge and hefty typewriter gathering dust in our study.’
It was pretty simple for Naomi, there was only one computer to buy when she started university: ‘I bought a bubbly shaped blue Mac because it matched the colour of my bedroom.’
Arch is one of Five by Five’s longest serving designers and remembers still using drawing boards with parallel motions to layout artwork when a Macintosh Classic and the Power Macintosh arrived: ‘A couple of us in the studio stayed behind one night to see this new fangled Desktop Publishing in action. It was immediately obvious how it would put whole professions like typesetters out of work but open up new worlds to designers.’
Steve was there at the time too: ‘I remember it well, as I was the 2nd person to move from the drawing boards to a Mac DTP system and it completely opened my eyes to what could be done. You could draw a fairly strong link to that experience and the current Five by Five.’
For Pete, it was his first encounter with an iPod that really mattered: ‘A friend of mine dashed straight out and bought the very first iPod, I just remember standing with it in my hand in awe. It was the touch sensitive wheel. I had never seen or used anything like it. I just stood there for 10 minutes turning the volume up and down – amazing.’
Jeremy’s first Mac experience was around 1995, playing Red Alert at a friend’s house, ever since then, he’s owned Mac products: ‘They seem so amazing at first, and then become so normal and part of our lives.’
George was visiting a company in Australia when he spotted one behind the reception desk: ‘I can’t remember the name of the company or what industry it was but I remember thinking this company must be cool. Who’d have thought having a certain type of computer on a reception desk could alter ones perception of a brand? The power of Apple, hey.’
Also in Australia, Martin was working for a recruitment agency and joined his colleague (and now his wife) as she hunted Sydney to buy the brand new iMac for the gadget freak owner. ‘I was confused by this; as far as I was concerned, one computer was the same as another, why would a particular type ever sell out and why would it be desirable? I was walking around the city with her and I saw it in a shop window. It was beautiful and stylish and just wanted to lick it. It redefined for me, what a computer could be. It was desirable, it did sell out and it was worth walking all over Sydney to buy.’
Neil’s first encounter was with an old iMac he bought for his young children, aged 2 and 4 years old: ‘It now sits in the playroom and they use it all the time. There is only one button to press to turn it on, it boots up really quick and they click the big shortcut icon on the desktop to go to the cbeebies website. I also recently bought an iPad2 and have installed well over 100 apps, I suspect 90% of which are for my kids. My kids love using the iPad and iMac now, which makes me happy, and I LOVE the power, usability and versatility of the iPad, but perhaps my kids love them a little too much and they are turning me into a bad parent, giving in to their demands? Nah, scratch that, who cares, I love it.’
If ever proof were needed of how Apple seeped into our lives, Tom sent round this clip from a pre-iPod, iPhone and iPad days film:
How best to end a post like this than with a clip found by Al, who’s first Apple memories are of playing with After Dark while waiting for his Dad in his office.
