Alice Rawsthorn, the Design Editor at the International Herald Tribune says that "many of the best examples of industrial design are things that people don't think was 'designed' at all [...] and what they don't realize is that from the moment they wake up, almost everything that fills their world has been designed one way or another" (Objectified). I'm going to analyze one of the premier products of contemporary industrial design, the MacBook Pro, because it is a beautifully designed tool, because I use it constantly in the design process, and because I am typing this blog on it now.
The day I opened my MacBook Pro, my immediate first insight was that this company focused on great design, and wore that fact proudly. Opening the MacBook Pro's box, you see glossy-white casing all around with an apple stamp, and an inside with a black surrounding protective interior where the laptop sits almost like a ring in a felt box, waiting to be put on and worn. The design of the presentation of the MacBook Pro already has had its effect, as the owner now looks at this MacBook Pro as a piece of him, not just any laptop.
Open the MacBook Pro and you can see the uniform casing body. Jonathan Ive, (senior VP of the Industrial design sector of Apple Computers) discusses that "there is a remarkable efficiency and beauty to how much a single part can do, [... in which] this one part is providing so much functionality, and that this one part really does enable this product." The grid-inspired pattern of the keyboard and layout of the bottom piece of the MacBook Pro, with its black-filled keys and white-luminous letters on the keyboard, give this laptop a unique and well-thought feel. The array of tiny holes to the right and left of the keyboard clearly yet unobtrusively represent the speakers, and the multi-touch trackpad leads to a very intuitive usability, yet keeps the entire interaction between user and tool simple and direct. The power button at the top right, blends in seamlessly, yet keeps functionality elegant.
On the right side of the bottom casing body is the DVD Superdrive, which is a slim holed-out slot. The left side of the bottom casing body has several different holes for plugs, the MagSafe power port, the gigabit ethernet port, a Firewire 800 port, a Mini DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, an audio in port, an audio out port, and finally set of seven mini battery-indicating LEDs. These are all essential elements in our modern world of Plug-ins and connectivity, and Apple fervently discards the rest that most people will not use regularly.
The top of the Macbook pro has a wide-far screen, with a black-glass frame around, and the obvious apple logo on the aluminum casing when closing this fine product.
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