Hello, bonjour and welcome!
This week the tech, geek and design world is still in mourning for the loss of one of the greatest designers of our time, Steve Jobs. But don’t worry, I’m not going to crack out the iViolons just yet. Instead lets take a little trip through the world of Steve Jobs from a graphic, design, artistic (and life) point of view!
On the itinerary, a visual overview of “the spirit of Steve Jobs”, a bunch of homepages, Apple’s love affair with typography, a stroll by the scenography of an Apple Store, the front page of Libération and Jobs’ speech at a Stanford graduation ceremony…
So happy Friday…and “Good Graphics”!
Off we go! We start with this interesting visualisation published last week which takes us inside the “thought process of Jobs”. In a simple fashion the image tells us the story of a thought, of a way of looking at product design, interface design and design-oriented innovation.
We continue with a review of some graphics from the big US sites that paid tribute to Steve Jobs. Google’s tribute was very simple, while Wired and Apple’s were more visual. It was also surprising to see Amazon place a little notice on their homepage, and to see Boing Boing borrow the theme of the first Macintosh for its entire site!
In order : Apple.com, BoingBoing.net, Amazon.fr, Google.com, Wired.com (if you’ve found others, let us know in the comments!)
As you may already know, Steve Jobs took a course in calligraphy at university. Maybe that explains why in the world of Macintosh, typography is king and a huge emphasis is placed on choosing the typography used in Apple products! Susan Kare was the first person to create the Apple Fonts : Monaco, Geneva, New York, Chicago. She was also behind the first Macintosh icons. Here’s some examples…
Let me take you back now to 2001, and a video from the archives where Steve Jobs introduces one of the first Apple Stores before its official launch. You’ll notice that all the key ingredients are already in place: Internet on every computer, the red telephone for calling Cupertino, the Genius Bar where Steve Jobs is deftly claiming « I’m not a genius ». It’s all in the art of the presentation. Apple remind us that while they know how to put together the technology, they also know how to create an experience with their products and in their stores. The concept of the Apple Store still hasn’t changed in 10 years and their future looks bright for a long time to come.
Still on the graphic side of things, here’s the superb front page from last week’s Libération. I think it speaks for itself, but the result is very elegant, visual and graphic!
We finish with a video (with French subtitles) from 2005 when Steve Jobs delivered one of his finest speeches to the students of Stanford University. Aside from the historic nature of the speech, I think it leaves us dreamers with a lot to think about!
To finish this slightly special edition, I wanted to point out that, away from the battle between Apple, Microsoft, Mac and PC (I work on a PC but I use Apple products every day), above all Steve Jobs was a designer, with an approach, a vision and a unique process. Our little tribute today is really nothing when you consider what he brought to the world of design.
If you want to learn more about Apple & Steve Jobs, cast an eye over this article or laugh again at these parodies, this cartoon, and this old infographic…
Have a great weekend…and until next week!
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