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Yeah, sometimes we get the toilet seat cover iBook and Cars 2, but by and large having a creative guru under nobody else's thumb seems to work well for both com

Yeah, sometimes we get the toilet seat cover iBook and Cars 2, but by and large having a creative guru under nobody else's thumb seems to work well for both companies.

danilocampos 15y ago
Say what you will about the original iBook, 14 year old me would have killed anyone you asked to have a Tangerine model. Loved that design so much. And it had Airport, which was science fiction shit at the time.
- AllenKids 15y ago
  It was certainly playful and fun and seriously one of a kind in the laptop category to this day. But, Ive kinda let his design overwhelm the product and the design was a lot less timeless comparing to his similarly themed first gen iMac. I consider it an evolution of the pretty ugly eMate (though of course much better), and it was created at a time Ive still was maturing as an industrial designer working closely with Jobs.
  - danilocampos 15y ago
    That's a fair point. Later designs grew ever more timeless. The only giveaway that the first all-white iBook is an older model is its dimensions, since it didn't have a widescreen display. I would offer one counter, though – the portable computer was long seen as a super serious affair. It was a thing for suits. The iBook was a bold declaration. It said "Fuck that, guys, portable computers are for everyone. Look how fun that's going to be!" The design positioned it as a friendly tool for kids, for students, for mom and dad. It was, in its way, egalitarian in a sense that no portable had previously been. Over the top? I guess, in hindsight, yes. But it reconfigured expectations, so in that way, the design did its job.
gallamine 15y ago
Actually, John Lasseter defends Cars 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pixar-defends-cars-2.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pi... Apparently the "critics" were far harsher than audiences.
- AllenKids 15y ago
  Of course, Cars 2 is the low point in Pixar's streak but overall still able to capture an audience not to mention tons of toys sold. I understand Lasseter's point and given his fixation over the concept I'll just accept the fact it is a big deal to him personally just as I accept Jobs' enthusiasm about getting Beatles in the iTMS.
  - zach 15y ago
    I think that's a very apt comparison. It's hard to overestimate how deeply personal Cars and Cars 2 are to John, but it's also hard to overstate how tricky they were to pull off. Sure, you can criticize Cars 2 for having a story that didn't hit the bullseye. Totally fair, by Pixar's own "story, story, story" standards. But don't think the Pixar Brain Trust didn't do so first (as mentioned in the article, things had indeed gone wrong) or that they didn't do heroic acts to make things work. Ultimately it's an artistic process within a movie studio and you sometimes have to put things into production and trust that you can work out the problems. Pixar will bend everything out of shape to delay that point but it still happens. It's the fact that Pixar had done so well rescuing movies from a burning story that makes the rest of us forget that sometimes. Still, where Cars and Cars 2 started from and how well the stories they had were executed — I think those things are hard to criticize. These movies are love letters to the automotive culture that came of age as John did, and they are both put on the screen with a huge amount of artistry, character, cleverness and humor.
    - thret 15y ago
      The Cars storyline was offensive to begin with. People who compete professionally in ANYTHING demand the best performance from their peers. Anything less is disrespectful. Having someone throw a race out of sentimentality, and making that seem somehow honorable is despicable. And then they make the winner of the race out to be some kind of arsehole because he gave it his best? It doesn't make any sense. The plot is the same as Lucky You and it physically made me sick.
ary 15y ago
I thought this about the first Cars (I've yet to see Cars 2). What you have to keep in mind is that kids loved the first one, and probably the second one too. Even Pixar is going to bow to commercial viability now and again so they can make things like Wall-E.

Yeah, sometimes we get the toilet seat cover iBook and Cars 2, but by and large having a creative guru under nobody else's thumb seems to work well for both companies.

danilocampos 15y ago

Say what you will about the original iBook, 14 year old me would have killed anyone you asked to have a Tangerine model. Loved that design so much. And it had Airport, which was science fiction shit at the time.

AllenKids 15y ago
It was certainly playful and fun and seriously one of a kind in the laptop category to this day. But, Ive kinda let his design overwhelm the product and the design was a lot less timeless comparing to his similarly themed first gen iMac. I consider it an evolution of the pretty ugly eMate (though of course much better), and it was created at a time Ive still was maturing as an industrial designer working closely with Jobs.
- danilocampos 15y ago
  That's a fair point. Later designs grew ever more timeless. The only giveaway that the first all-white iBook is an older model is its dimensions, since it didn't have a widescreen display. I would offer one counter, though – the portable computer was long seen as a super serious affair. It was a thing for suits. The iBook was a bold declaration. It said "Fuck that, guys, portable computers are for everyone. Look how fun that's going to be!" The design positioned it as a friendly tool for kids, for students, for mom and dad. It was, in its way, egalitarian in a sense that no portable had previously been. Over the top? I guess, in hindsight, yes. But it reconfigured expectations, so in that way, the design did its job.

gallamine 15y ago

Actually, John Lasseter defends Cars 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pixar-defends-cars-2.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pi... Apparently the "critics" were far harsher than audiences.

AllenKids 15y ago
Of course, Cars 2 is the low point in Pixar's streak but overall still able to capture an audience not to mention tons of toys sold. I understand Lasseter's point and given his fixation over the concept I'll just accept the fact it is a big deal to him personally just as I accept Jobs' enthusiasm about getting Beatles in the iTMS.
- zach 15y ago
  I think that's a very apt comparison. It's hard to overestimate how deeply personal Cars and Cars 2 are to John, but it's also hard to overstate how tricky they were to pull off. Sure, you can criticize Cars 2 for having a story that didn't hit the bullseye. Totally fair, by Pixar's own "story, story, story" standards. But don't think the Pixar Brain Trust didn't do so first (as mentioned in the article, things had indeed gone wrong) or that they didn't do heroic acts to make things work. Ultimately it's an artistic process within a movie studio and you sometimes have to put things into production and trust that you can work out the problems. Pixar will bend everything out of shape to delay that point but it still happens. It's the fact that Pixar had done so well rescuing movies from a burning story that makes the rest of us forget that sometimes. Still, where Cars and Cars 2 started from and how well the stories they had were executed — I think those things are hard to criticize. These movies are love letters to the automotive culture that came of age as John did, and they are both put on the screen with a huge amount of artistry, character, cleverness and humor.
  - thret 15y ago
    The Cars storyline was offensive to begin with. People who compete professionally in ANYTHING demand the best performance from their peers. Anything less is disrespectful. Having someone throw a race out of sentimentality, and making that seem somehow honorable is despicable. And then they make the winner of the race out to be some kind of arsehole because he gave it his best? It doesn't make any sense. The plot is the same as Lucky You and it physically made me sick.

ary 15y ago

I thought this about the first Cars (I've yet to see Cars 2). What you have to keep in mind is that kids loved the first one, and probably the second one too. Even Pixar is going to bow to commercial viability now and again so they can make things like Wall-E.