Edible Apple

Legendary Apple alum Andy Hertzfeld, who now works for Google, posted an interesting link on his Google+ recently highlighting a rare commercial Apple created in honor of the first Mac. The ad was designed by Chiat-Day and includes interesting snippets about the Mac from the design team. Notably, Hertzfeld notes that the commercial never made it to air because Apple deemed it to be too “self-congratulatory”, while noting it did make its way into some promotional materials sent to dealers way back in the 80’s.

Some interesting cameos to be seen, including of course Hertzfeld who said, “”We were just trying to make something incredibly great, and I think we did.”

A young Burrell Smith, touted as a Macintosh Hardware Wizard kicks things off by explaining, “We designed the Macintosh really because we wanted one for ourselves and we couldn’t get one and Apple turned  it into a product to turn the whole world onto what we got.”

Interestingly enough, Apple executives to this day continue to parrot that sentiment that was so apparent even back in the 1980s – designing products that “we our selves would like to use.”

George Crow, the Manager of Analog Design on the original Mac chimes in: “It had to be easy to manufacture, it had to be very reliable because we didn’t want our customers to ever have to worry about it failing. And it had to cost roughly 1/4 of anything I’ve ever designed before.

And Apple fellow Bill Atkinson adds, “Demonstrating the Macintosh is the only way to do it. i can’t really describe it to you in words, but if i can get you to sit in front of it and play with it , you won’t let go of it.”