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# early apple computer and tablet designs
- URL: https://www.trxl.co/2012-12-28-early-apple-computer-and-tablet-designs/
- Published: 2012-12-29T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2023-07-25T00:26:07.000Z
- Author: Evan Troxel
- Tags: Apple, Inspiring People, design, #sqs, #Import-blog1, #evantroxel-me-com

![apple 'baby mac', 1985](https://storage.ghost.io/c/93/80/9380fef7-629b-48bf-9c81-27fe48a999cc/content/images/content/v1/4fb6ec4fe4b093525981eab3/1356759820376-L37UUMAYD9YX3PS69AN5/image-asset.jpg)

apple 'baby mac', 1985

There are some amazing stories coming out of Apple these days, and there are some beautiful early designs (as well as some turds) to see in a [new book](http://www.arnoldsche.com/en/Design/DESIGN-FORWARD.html) by Hartmut Esslinger, a past designer at Apple who also founded [frog design](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog%5Fdesign). It's really interested to see that even when the company was only 6 years into its existence, Jobs felt Apple was in trouble in a design-sense due to its product hierarchy and compartmentalized product design teams, and that they needed to do something drastic with design which ultimately set it on a course that hasn't stopped since.

> In the book, Esslinger explains how ‘strategic design’ in business and society can and must bring about positive change through innovative creativity. A key component is the strategically extended definition of design as a convergent and humanistic amalgamation of technology, the environment and the economy.

  
You can see the prototypes and read a bit about the new book, Esslinger's story, and what it was like working at Apple back in the early 80's on [designboom](http://www.designboom.com/technology/hartmut-esslingers-early-apple-computer-and-tablet-designs/).

(via [Daring Fireball](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/12/28/esslinger-design))

[∞](http://evantroxel.com/blog/2012/12/28/early-apple-computer-and-tablet-designs)