Among my responsibilities on the early Mac project was procuring the foam inserts the 128 was to be shipped in. The source chosen was Foam Fabricators in LA. We gave them the product specs, dummy units and an NDA, they did the design and engineering along with drop and crush testing. One day in August in 1983 I flew down there to pick up the samples. On returning to Cupertino I met with Steve and Barbara Koalkin (Mac marketing) in one of the Bandley 3 conference rooms.
The box was opened, revealing the white foam clamshell with all those protruding ribs-
Steve: That looks like shit!
Barbara: Steve, even you can't repeal the laws of physics...
Me: It's about a controlled crush and energy absorption in case of getting dropped during shipping. Many products are packed similarly for just that reason.
Steve: I don't care, it's garbage, I want it redesigned, hire that guy from Frogdesign (an outside design firm he had recently become enamored of).
And thus entered Hartmut Eslinger for what (I believe) was his first design assignment for Apple.
Foam Fabricators said there were really no other options, maybe they could change the small relief vents in the mold to be apple shaped if we insisted? Hartmut looked, studied and came back in complete agreement with the vendor -what now?
If you have ever unpacked a compact Mac you will notice that the top clamshell has a large Apple logo in the flat area underneath the open-me-first box. That's it, the only change that made any sense to do.
Steve was happy, Hartmut collected his check and our supplier only billed for a relatively easy modification.
The box was opened, revealing the white foam clamshell with all those protruding ribs-
Steve: That looks like shit!
Barbara: Steve, even you can't repeal the laws of physics...
Me: It's about a controlled crush and energy absorption in case of getting dropped during shipping. Many products are packed similarly for just that reason.
Steve: I don't care, it's garbage, I want it redesigned, hire that guy from Frogdesign (an outside design firm he had recently become enamored of).
And thus entered Hartmut Eslinger for what (I believe) was his first design assignment for Apple.
Foam Fabricators said there were really no other options, maybe they could change the small relief vents in the mold to be apple shaped if we insisted? Hartmut looked, studied and came back in complete agreement with the vendor -what now?
If you have ever unpacked a compact Mac you will notice that the top clamshell has a large Apple logo in the flat area underneath the open-me-first box. That's it, the only change that made any sense to do.
Steve was happy, Hartmut collected his check and our supplier only billed for a relatively easy modification.
