OT: Original iMac ad influences

[Lynn Fredricks]

> I hope you get better! (I usually get those from nodding off 
> at the keyboard, I should really get an LCD to replace the 
> CRT, I heard they're much softer).
> 
> On the topic you've raised: I've often wondered how far back 
> the design of the product begins prior to it making a social 
> impact - In this sense, where the iMac was concerned: Is the 
> design driven by the company or the designer? Steve Jobs 
> hired Jonathan Ive: Did his design influence Steve Jobs? Did 
> Steve Jobs want Jonathan Ive's designs? Would there have been 
> a 'floral' iMac without them?

Regardless of what really happened, it's a certainty that either SJ will
take credit for it, or a loving set of followers will credit him with it ;-)

> Possibly, maybe not when they did, but it was bound to happen 
> (whether from Apple or another company). Some may have even 
> had similar designs prior to Apple, but afraid, weary of 
> releasing something that different?

The iMac's colors and varying shapes were consumer product designs applied
to computers. The concept of doing something like this is not new - taking
working, successful product qualities and applying them to a new class of
products. This was how the Jello Pudding Pop was born.

The iMac wasn't the first to do this, though they are without a doubt the
most successful at crossing not only the technical boundaries but also
cultural ones as well. Ive seen "consumerized" electronics from Japan since
first going there in the late '80s, and computers a few years later
thereafter. But I know it all started there well before that.

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com

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