There was an uproar last week. Most weeks. Days? Everyday. Apple had an event on Tuesday. I usually tune in to the Apple events. I like them. I like Apple. Always have. Always will. I’m a stock holder. I’m invested in Apple. Literally. As a creative and as someone who’s believed in their mission to design for people, people who are by nature creative since I was 14 years old.
But this event aired at 7:00am. Thanks but no thanks. Too damn early. That would mean waking up at 6:30 to get my shit together, get the espresso made, settle in to watch. Not gonna happen. Apparently while I was sleeping, Apple tripped over it’s own dick. In the unveiling of their new, super thin, super capable new iPad Pro, they aired a spot where a hydraulic press crushed all number of creative tools and musical instruments, paints, a piano, guitar, etc, etc. etc. One of the last shots featured a foam smily face emoji, crushed til its eyes bugged out. It was fucking disturbing. I’ve only watched it once. My happy expectations turning to horror. I should watch it again in the writing of this so I can cite more accurately, but alas, I will not. You can go find it if you want. The metaphor is obvious. All these wonderful creative tools from instruments to finger paints, crammed in to this one, deliciously sexy, thin, sleek piece of tech that can be yours for the low low price of $1299. Glass and silicon and titanium and rare earth minerals mined by children, can replace everything you love. Miss me with that shit. Most tech companies are forgoing the human for the pay off. I mean, of course Apple has too, but up until now, it felt like they were empowering people. This didn’t feel that way.
They’ve since retracted the piece and apologized. The uproar has been loud. Everyone else should take notice. You can only push people so far before they jump ship. Instagram is about to learn this. Not that they’ll care. There are enough idiots (myself included) who will spend hours on their platform watching the nonsense to scrape in the ad dollars. A thoughtfully considered and composed photograph holds no sway in this sea of noise.
Apple built itself as a tool for creative people. Full stop. From the very early days of word processing and post script. The relationship between computer and physical output. They built the tools that not only enabled creativity, but were themselves, designed for creative people to utilize. This is fucking huge. It has shaped the society we live in. Using a Macintosh in 1991 felt like a revelation. I could put my hand on an object and make a cursor on a screen move as I moved. It was connection. This is what Apple is. I had watched my friends fumble with DOS interfaces and clumsy keyboard input and it was so fucking boring and stiff. The first time I touched a Mac, it was my cousin’s and she had a program that let you perform open heart surgery. Talk about human.
Apparently they’re throwing Chiat Day under the bus for this misstep, but believe me, nothing this big happens at Apple without a dozen important people signing off on it. But I do hope they’ve heard the feedback. I’m pretty sure they have. These companies need to remember, that at the end of the day, they’re designing for PEOPLE. And we’re goddamn fickle. Once you lose people, your days are numbered. This whole damn thing is the scorpion on the frog fable.
We’re feeling crushed already. By our politics and society and capitalism, and technology and Ai and the struggle that is every day life. Don’t give us a visual representation of everything we hold dear being literally crushed in a hydraulic press. Do better. For fucks sake, do better.
This week’s set is a solid retro vibe with MaryJ The Muse Second in the series. Think there may be one more in the works. TBD. Click here to see em all 50+ Oh, and if you’ve joined my Print of the Month Club, and you have not responded to my email requesting your mailing address, do it! I can’t send things to nowhere. Please and thank you. And thank you for subscribing!