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A photo history of Frog, the company that designed the original Mac
- HillaryBriss 7y agointriguing to suggest that Steve Jobs/Apple considered themselves a fairy tale "Wicked Queen" who sat in a throne and had the power to apply judgment to others. i don't know if that was actually true about Apple, but some other large corporations seem to view themselves in exactly that way. they treat their potential business partners and vendors as if they were beastly suitors of infinite patience invested with nothing but a powerful lust for a signed contract.
- okcando 7y agoThere's a wicked queen in the story to be sure but it isn't Snow White, who grows up to be the "fairest in the land" and isn't a jerk about it. It's just a name for the style that suggests it's very beautiful and yet understated.
- abakker 7y agoInteresting to note that Frog got a new owner yesterday - they are now part of CapGemini, through the acquisition of Altran.
- aresant 7y agoMore early protos in the same spirit: 1) A proto Mac LC from IDEO - https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21652/lot/188/ https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21652/lot/188/ 2) Several other unused protos from Hartmut Esslinger @ FROG - https://www.engadget.com/2014/05/28/an-apple-flip-phone-from-1984-and-a-tablet-from-1979/ https://www.engadget.com/2014/05/28/an-apple-flip-phone-from...
- adolph 7y agoFrom the description of the LC prototype: has a vertically-oriented screen not used on any production models. Considering the screen orientation, this very well could have been a prototype for a model targeted toward the business world, rather than the artistic, publishing and educational markets that the Mac traditionally attracted. Clearly the writer never saw the Portrait Display, which was extensively used in desktop publishing. I loved mine. http://myoldmac.net/SELL/apple-portraitmoni.htm http://myoldmac.net/SELL/apple-portraitmoni.htm
- TheOtherHobbes 7y agoThe portrait idea had a lot of prior history - not least the Xerox Alto, but also the ICL/Three Rivers PERQ, launched in 1979, with a custom Pascal-optimised microcode CPU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ
- rbanffy 7y agoWas it possible to pair the portrait monitor with the LC?
- rbanffy 7y agoThe IDEO prototype looks like some relative to the Color Classic.
- rongenre 7y agoWikipedia link: https://bit.ly/2ZJLGPi https://bit.ly/2ZJLGPi (because HN isn't dealing with a period at the end of the URL)
- twic 7y agoWe've got those turrets at work! I would never have guessed they were by the same company as the early Macs!
- reaperducer 7y agoFrog designed AT&T’s digital answering machine in 1990, the model 1337. I remember that answering machine quite well. It was one of the first digital answering machines, and very well made. Beautiful, compared with other answering machines of the day. I bought one for myself, and my girlfriend broke up with me because I hadn't bought anything for her in a very long time. I wasn't a very good person back then.
- notzuck 7y agoSounds like you dodged a bullet with the gf.
- asutekku 7y agoNah. It all boils down to attention. If you have not treated your girlfriend in a while and buy stupidly expensive answering machine, that shows where the priorities are.
- noir_lord 7y agoIt's a complex area, I make much more than my partner so I try to keep things balanced, treat her to Metallica tickets, a nice hotel and a few days in a big city neither of us has been too. Picked up my Oculus Rift S on the way back. I don't do it to keep score or anything, I like treating her as her been happy makes me happy.
- asutekku 7y agoOf course one shouldn’t keep score or anything, that’s unhealthy on the long run and one should treat themselves once in a while. But showing affection even if it is by sometimes buying something is appreciated. And i speak this from an experience similar to the grandfather.
- MrBuddyCasino 7y agoLooks like the grandfather of the Wii.
- throwaway-1-2-3 7y agoSomewhat fitting then, that Frog also led the redesign of DisneyWorld.com in 2010
- armadsen 7y agoThis is mostly great, and I wish I could visit the exhibit. But the headline is just wrong. Frog Design did not design the original Mac. Jerry Manock did. Frog Design created the Snow White design language first used on the Mac with the Mac II and Mac SE.
- jdswain 7y agoAnd the Mac SE wasn't introduced in 1984 as the article says, the original Macintosh (128) was introduced then, designed by Jerry Manock as the parent says. The Mac SE and Mac II were introduced in 1987, after the 512, Plus and 512Ke.
- tomcam 7y agoI find virtually all of these, and especially the original Mac design [1], pleasing even now. Do they look hilarious to younger generations? I’m guessing yes... http://oldcomputers.net/macintosh.html http://oldcomputers.net/macintosh.html
- yellowapple 7y agoI really like that Lisa design concept. Kinda wish 8.5"×11" screens caught on (or maybe slightly bigger to allow for some margins around the page).
- tomcam 7y agoright with you on that one. I’m kind of surprised that the 8.5x11 form factor didn’t become the norm with flat screens, TBH.
- statictype 7y agoWe went to frog to design some of our interfaces. Their closest office was in Shanghai - I was surprised at the quality and depth of the team there. They were very process driven but also very creative - the first time I've actually seen both of those work well together.
- ahartmetz 7y agoI've worked on an embedded user interface according to a spec by frog. It was great fun because, among other things, the UI described by the spec was nice and good looking, and the spec left no important open questions. The customer paid for frog so I don't know how much it cost, but probably a whole lot. Anyway, if somebody asks for high quality UX/UI design, I recommend frog.
- statictype 7y agoThey are expensive - but they care about the work they do and are very good.
- DigitalTerminal 7y agoThat foam model is just gorgeous!
- whenchamenia 7y agoThe article is full of examples of making the product worse to boost sales. Not a fan of this race-to-the-bottom engineering, no matter how 'iconic'.