early apple computer and tablet designs

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 by Hartmut Esslinger, a past designer at Apple who also founded frog design. 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.

(via Daring Fireball)

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