Steve and the laws of physics.. tales from Bandley 3

[Huguenot]

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.

 

[Phipli]

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.

Did anyone suggest adding dye to the polystyrene?

 

[David Cook]

Good story! Keep them coming.

 

[Boctor]

This is great, not just the characteristic Jobs response but the thought of a professional designer seeing something that's already sound from an engineering/physics perspective and not wanting to upset the balance.

I'm hoping at least one person out there has an account of the time Steve wanted a particular machine at the Fremont factory painted bright blue.

 

[slomacuser]

This should be posted to CHM who maintains the https://www.folklore.org/ now

 

[Huguenot]

This is great, not just the characteristic Jobs response but the thought of a professional designer seeing something that's already sound from an engineering/physics perspective and not wanting to upset the balance.

I'm hoping at least one person out there has an account of the time Steve wanted a particular machine at the Fremont factory painted bright blue.

I don't recall that one but he did have all the galvanized HVAC ducting (which was exposed due to the open 20' ceilings) painted over the weekend once.

Did anyone suggest adding dye to the polystyrene?

Was not ever mentioned, maybe not even possible? In fact I have never seen any other than white ("natural", they called it) used on any product packaging. The process was interesting as it used steam, and I recall making sure the clamshells were properly moisture free was an issue. White has always been Apple's favorite color for the packaging anyway.

This should be posted to CHM who maintains the https://www.folklore.org/ now

Last time I checked the site indicated folklore was closed to new submissions, otherwise I would.

Good story! Keep them coming.

Thanks, I'll add a couple more.
Any regarding the overseas trips may need to have names redacted for "reasons"... and may show up in the Lounge forum.

And, an edit after looking through my business card stash -frogdesign is spelled with a lower case f, and Esslinger has a double s.
My bad.

 

[Phipli]

maybe not even possible

I've seen black expanded polystyrene - you'd probably have to use a strong pigment because of the expanded nature of the product, but it is possible. I think the stuff I saw was part of a product, like a lightweight drone chassis of something, I forget.

It shouldn't generally matter though as it is mostly just for shipping!

From Google :

 

[adespoton]

Starting AFTER most of the industry had moved from polystyrene to other packaging options, I started seeing coloured polystyrene -- I've seen "red" "green" and "blue" -- in all cases, the colour must have been really concentrated originally, but comes out more as a light tint than a solid colour in the end product, and is definitely not even. I don't think Steve would have gone for it.