Color Classic style family

[beachycove]

I am not sure where to post this, so why not here?

Something that I had not realized until this week is that the LC5xx series' styling is strikingly similar to the Color Classic. Once I saw that, I decided that I really like my little LC575. It looks great on the shelf next to my Color Classic.

Then I went looking around my 'lab', and discovered that some of the same motifs (e.g., the sound/ ventilation holes, the radius of the curves) are also picked up in unexpected places, e.g., on the IIxv-Q650-7100 cases, and on the PowerBook Duo series. The CC, the LC575, and the Duo (via the DuoDock) even have 'feets'.

I have had several of these around me for years, and yet I had never noticed any of these affinities before. Then this week, while devoting an hour or so to a relative newcomer, the LC575, I had my little epiphany.

Are there other family resemblances to the Color Classic that I have missed, and does anyone know the name for that particular 'design language'?

 

[Mac128]

Are there other family resemblances to the Color Classic that I have missed, and does anyone know the name for that particular 'design language'?

Yes. The design language is called Espresso and originated with the Color Classic and is specifically implemented into all Apple designs from mid-1991 to 1998 and first appeared in products released in 1993. There were variations on the design language but most echo some specific feature of the CC.

If you are interested in design, I would encourage you to find a copy of Paul Kunkel's out of print Apple Design.

 

[luddite]

I'm also rather fond of the 575's design, though it seems to be a minority opinion. I don't know if I'd actually refer to a 575 as little though. ;-)

 

[beachycove]

Thank you for that lead, which led to the name of the CC industrial designer, the Italian Daniele DeIuliis, which led me back a step further to another of his designs, the PowerBook 5xx series. My 540c is presently secreted in a box somewhere, awaiting surgery (it refuses to charge a perfectly good, re-celled battery except very erratically). It will now need, in addition to fixing, a comparison, and eventually shelving and display, with its closer siblings.

I had previously taken it as a sort of brute fact lacking explanation that I prefer the machines of the 93-98 era aesthetically over the others, both earlier and later (with the possible exception of my G4 Cube, which was purchased new and as a piece of design for use in a public area of my home as well as for its function as a computer). I now discover that the 93-98 machines share elements of a single design language, though if you had asked me whether they did so yesterday, I would have sworn something purple that they did not.... There is not an obvious similarity to my untrained eye between the CC (which I now learn inaugurated the Espresso 'language') and a beige G3 minitower or a Laserwriter 4/600, but yes, there is a formal design language common to them all - going well beyond the sheer colour and medium of plastic - that has worked itself into me in unconscious ways. That is presumably why I prefer the beige designs of 1993-98 as a set, much more than those ghastly (and 'loud', stylewise) iMac G3s and B&W G3 towers/ G4 towers that came later. I don't even want a G3/G4 tower in the house, such is my loathing of their form. I confess that I have one tray-loading iMac (but it is in a cupboard). It's beige for me all the way, baby.

And yes, by comparison with some behemoths like a 20" ColorSync hooked up to an 8600, a little LC575 is just that.

Pic of the Color Classic and the LC575 for comparison here.

 

[Mac128]

beachycove, at the risk of quashing your enthusiasm, I've never been a huge fan of the 5xx series. The 575 was based on the 520 "Hook" design. The amazing thing is that when they were trying to adapt the CC to a larger format, they had so many better designs than what they ended up with. To my eye it is kind of an unwieldy Frankenstein's monster and Luddite is correct, there is NOTHING little about it! The only version of the 5xx I can tolerate is the Mac TV because the matte black case has a mitigating effect on the bulk and hideousness of the design. It sort of reminds me of a top heavy Sphinx daring you to touch it lest it fall over.

And here's some trivia for ya: Apple's Industrial Design Group HATED the 520 form factor. It was a design exploration and it was so unanimously disliked they shelved it. It was actually Sculley's idea to revive it in late '92 and demanded IDg deliver a 14" all-in-one in less than six-months. Since engineering called the shots, they had no choice but to let the design go out the door to meet Sculley's demands: engineering literally pulled the detested design off the shelf and put it immediately into production over IDg's objections. Larry Barbera was the project head responsible for the adaptation of the CC and immediately began redesigning the 520 (again because everyone hated it so much) anticipating the release of the PPC-based 5200 series, which I personally much prefer as well. Ironically, engineering ruined that design too as Apple decided to move away from their expensive partnership with Sony and replaced the sleek Trinitron screens with standard shadow-mask CRTs. The effect is something akin to a giant fish eye, which further tainted the 580 as well. For what it's worth, I think the logical successor to the CC is the PowerMac G3 All-In_one.

However, I am in full agreement with your assessment of the Espresso language, which was so named because the design group had just gotten a new espresso maker for their office when they were developing the style. It is among my favorite styles of Apple. I actually detest Snow White, for reasons too numerous to go into in this thread, though I am actually quite fond of the Manock beige Mac era, which sadly never made it out of the classic iconic Mac design. Ironically, all of the designs which you eschew were Jonathan Ives' brainchild who was actually working at Apple throughout the 92-98 era and heavily influenced by it.

Also, of some interest is the transitional era that preceded Espresso called interestingly enough Jaguar. It was during that period that the front bezel radius appeared applied to Snow White designs and developed into the Mac Classic. So the CC definitely had influences that inspired it. Because Apple was still trying to tie new designs to the recognizable Snow White language these hybrids continued to appear up to 1995.

To be clear about the CC, DeIuliis was not the only one involved. Bob Brunner who ran the IDg implemented many of the classic features, like the elephant feet as well as the 6 degree tilt. Larry Barbera also contributed significantly to it as well. However, the PowerBook 500 was all his. Intended to be a 1 year transitional product into the PPC era, DeIuliis was able to design a truly unique product that did not have to allow for future expansion. It was a one-year run that would not be further developed and therefore includes features and details that few other products were allowed to express.

And there is NOTHING beige about any of the 93-98 designs, though the yellowing of the plastic may have you believe as much. Apple's official color for all desktops and peripherals during the 90s is called "Platinum" a light blue-gray color.

 

[istar1018]

Mac128, where do you get these insights into Apple's ID group? Can you recommend a book / website?

 

[Mac128]

Mac128, where do you get these insights into Apple's ID group? Can you recommend a book / website?

See my first post. :beige:

Also, check out http://www.landsnail.com/ for a great bibliography of sources to read.

Here is an online history of design article which incorporates much of the book I reference. However, it deals mostly with the Manock and Snow White eras, rather than the Jaguar and Espresso era that interest you.

 

[slomacuser]

Mac128, where do you get these insights into Apple's ID group? Can you recommend a book / website?

If you are interested in design, I would encourage you to find a copy of Paul Kunkel's out of print Apple Design

 

[slomacuser]

eh, just after you there is also video of design group on youtube

 

[Mike Richardson]

There are some Apple products that do not follow Apple's design languages at all. Many Apple monitors and printers were just re-badged PC products, such as the Performa Plus Display (re-badged Magnavox products).

 

[joshc]

There are some Apple products that do not follow Apple's design languages at all. Many Apple monitors and printers were just re-badged PC products, such as the Performa Plus Display (re-badged Magnavox products).

Most of the printers are rebadged Canons, IIRC. And the QuickTake 200 camera is a Kodak body.

 

[Mac128]

There are some Apple products that do not follow Apple's design languages at all. Many Apple monitors and printers were just re-badged PC products, such as the Performa Plus Display (re-badged Magnavox products).

I did not realize Apple continued this practice during the 90s, which was pretty common in the 70s & 80s before Apple had the resources to fully do it themselves. I knew they used other company's internals, but I thought from this point on they always custom designed the case. That Performa display is horrible. Perhaps I should have said any product Apple manufactured used Espresso. However it does not surprise me. Apple was struggling during this period and yet continued the practice of offering a full line of peripherals, regardless if they offered any improvement over third party offerings, if only to get a piece of the profit they would otherwise forfeit. By this time all manufactures pretty much used the same standards and many companies had begun to knock off both Apple's designs and colors, so basic monitors and printers could probably have been easily picked up rather than investing resources into creating them from scratch. This is also why Apple has likely gotten out of the printer business altogether. If you look at the Apple Store page today, they feature the third party printers that reflect their design style, not necessarily those that are most practical or affordable. Wireless and network printing also makes it easy to hide your printer well out of site.

There were also some other peripherals like a quicktake web-cam that was just a repackaged PC product, and I'm sure some hard drives and modems. But none of these products were designed or manufactured by Apple. So they feature somebody's design language, just NOT Apple's homegrown brand. Can you imagine Apple doing such a thing today?

 

[istar1018]

Mac128, where do you get these insights into Apple's ID group? Can you recommend a book / website?

If you are interested in design, I would encourage you to find a copy of Paul Kunkel's out of print Apple Design

I saw that... I didn't know that had some of the inside gossip - like the ID group taking the 520 design off the shelf because of Scully's decision. I always thought it was more of a coffee table photo book, but now I'll have to look for one to wander into my price range!

 

[beachycove]

All good fodder. Thanks again ... though they all still look beige to me, being unable to tell one subtle colour change from another at the best of times, and I still really like my little LC575.

As for the 5200-5500 form factor, I am not at all fond of it, finding it a rather boxy, unexciting and unimaginative design. This is no doubt a case of chacun à son goût, but it may also have something to do with the fact that I suffered through a year or so of 5200 ownership, and have painful memories of that particular lump of ... plastic.

Kunkel's Apple Design is something I have never seen in the flesh (like most of us in these parts), though from the same website cited I did know about the Snow White and Frog Design phases. The ensuing Espresso, which the timeline in view on the website falls short of, gives me something else to explore, though without Kunkel, it is likely to be hard to find much information. I think, however, that I might just begin working on that deficit this evening by taking a peek at that YouTube video.

 

[Mac128]

This is no doubt a case of chacun à son goût

No doubt. We all have our favorites and they all have their shortcomings which can be argued in favor of an individual position. There are no empiricals when it comes to taste.

The fact that the Apple IDg thought of the LC 5xx as some resuscitated stillborn, is matched only by their own surprise to see how popular it was, both among consumers and in film & TV.

Unfortunately Apple does not give us much leeway in embracing our own style, but rather forces us into their present design whims should we require the most current technology, often orphaning a look with which we have both grown accustomed and enamored. Unlike interior design, computers which are often as visible and integral in our lives as a comfortable chair, cannot be both functional and evoke a specific design milieu. We must learn to accept one's Colonial styled drawing room, with a brushed aluminum iMac perched atop a Queen Anne desk.

 

[Charlieman]

We must learn to accept one's Colonial styled drawing room, with a brushed aluminum iMac perched atop a Queen Anne desk.

A brilliant argument for the Mac Mini disguised as a cigar box hooked up to a discreetly styled TFT...

 

[Miel]

...To my eye it is kind of an unwieldy Frankenstein's monster and Luddite is correct, there is NOTHING little about it!

I came across a Performa 580 that was being used as a display computer in a furniture store a while back. To me, it was truely tiny. I'd always imagined it to be a monster of a machine.

So, I do beg to differ!

 

[~Coxy]

Most of the printers are rebadged Canons, IIRC.

Lots of Apple's printers used Canon print engines, but that's not the same thing as selling a rebadged product.

The logic boards, design, software, packaging, etc. were usually all Apple up until the last few StyleWriters, I believe.