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Discussing older Mac OS X Design Language

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They don't monitor these forums and respond to anything we gripe about.
I'm not sure I believe that after sending 'that' email to Tim.
 
Cool is no longer possible. McLuhan remark that in 1/2 a generation "cool" went from a claim of detachment and uninvolvement to claims of deep attachment and intense involvement, but the expressive form never changed.

Craighazen's point can be read that now cool is purely nostalgic.

The Picasso thing never worked for me, but it did effectively signal to me the idea that Apple wanted to connect its computer products to "cultured" lifestyles, where at the time curating one's life still has some meaning in terms of expansive cultural experiences, art, science+technology and wealth; wealth as a privilege that could be generated, not just inherited.

The Picasso branding was culturally honest even as Apple was effectively raping the ghost of Che Guevara to make itself recognizable.

Happily Apple told us about themselves in 1984 with Ridley Scott commercial: it's same thing with Google "Don't Be Evil" A good grift let's the mark in on the game... Or to put it another way "a leopard can see it's own spots"

I have no patience for any of the branding: "those magazines wind up in the trash" Once you are aware of a certain amount of manipulation by glamour, you begin to see all the best marketing is manipulating you with glamour... And after exposure to a lot of it, glamour always looks fake because it's about the systematic rejection of the actual world in favor of a more attractive fantasy world.

Moreover, marketing design is captive to the industrial moment of its production. Is Apple's iconography from the time of vintage-Mac really different from Microsoft's? No! Partly because the same designer did both regimes; she contracted for MSFT after Apple. But moreso because the design language was defined by the idea of bit-blat and the creative environments that were inherently pointillist. Why? Because that's how the engineers figured out how to make TV work, and the PC is a TV with an epically more fungible channel-changer.

McLuhan: The last person to tell you about water will be a fish.

That's where we are with boring Apple. At least in old timey dayz, all the engineering seemed fresh, but that was because so much seemed impossible until you saw it.

Now that anything's possible, everything gets boring.
 
Apple could bring the ‘cool’ and ‘think different’ back, they could get artists involved, doesn’t BMW still get artists to paint their cars. How about a Banksy Mac campaign, that would be awesome!.
 
I truly miss the old designs that mimicked real world objects and spaces. Skeuomorphism would be the term for that... I miss that. I don't want my UI to be as flat as my LCD panel! I can understand Apple moving on from CDs, as CDs aren't exactly cutting edge tech anymore, but the flatness... It's just so bland!
 
I read yesterday that a competition for the best Mac desktop picture, officiated by Basic Apple Guy using a March Madness format!?... Catalina!, yep you read that right, I disagree but that's for another thread. I'm a 10.4 Tiger fan and it still looks good today.

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Default Chinese fonts before El Capitan were horrible. For my MacBook with Lion installed I even replaced the default Chinese fonts or they would burn my eyes.
 
As the subject of Typography and macOS has come up, can I just point out how ugly and sloppy the new 'About this Mac' window is!. I do like the format, I just wish they'd make it just a little wider so that words aren't left alone on a unnecessary second line.

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It's so true! I absolutely despise this info sheet design it is so cluttered! They should have done better.
I know this stuff because I actually studied Design at college (had wanted to become an industrial product designer from a young age). So I've always been aware of what good design (language) is. The motto to most good designs is 'Form Follows Function'. This has been the general design principle used in the last 100 years starting with Bauhaus in Europe (used by Bang & Olufsen/Braun/Ikea/Knoll/Volkswagen) and now of course, Apple.
Aside from this, has been the development (and assistance) of better materials such as plastics/metals and CNC equipment/processes which has enabled these products to come into fruition.

That said, I think despite it's 'sleekness' the Mac Studio is a horrible design, in particular with respects to the massive internal heatsink and fans it has to employ. I would have thought being Apple they could have done better.
If they had managed to reduce the thickness of the iMac with M1 I believe they could surely do it with the Mac Studio.

I read yesterday that a competition for the best Mac desktop picture, officiated by Basic Apple Guy using a March Madness format!?... Catalina!, yep you read that right, I disagree but that's for another thread. I'm a 10.4 Tiger fan and it still looks good today.
Talking of the Basic Apple Guy, one of the things I love about is his designs for wallpaper.
Here is his M1 Gradient Wallpaper design. I'm surprised Apple hasn't released this officially as a background as I think it looks really cool.

m1-gradient-wallpaper.jpg
 
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