Conventional wisdom has it that when a band releases a greatest hits album, it’s a tacit admission that their best days are behind them. There may be a second wind in the future, once the guitarist has gone off to a commune and found religion, the singer’s recorded a weird side-project with an experimental artist, and the third drummer’s died in a freak llama accident, but for now, don’t expect a return to those dizzying heights.
On an unrelated note, Apple has released a $300 book full of pictures of all its great products.
The book, titled Designed by Apple in California, is available in two sizes, big and very big, and contains 450 pictures of products from 20 years of the company’s history. The project comes with a foreword from Apple’s chief design officer, Jony Ive, was shot by the photographer Andrew Zuckerman, and is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.
“This archive is intended to be a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years,” said Ive, not elaborating on what a “gentle gathering of products” is. “We hope it brings some understanding to how and why they exist, while serving as a resource for students of all design disciplines.”
Ive was so devoted to the book that he ended up leading the development of a custom form of paper, because normal paper apparently doesn’t work for printing all of the white objects Apple makes. “There were a few things we needed to do to accurately and objectively portray these products,” he told Wallpaper magazine. “Of course, many of these products are white, so the off-the-shelf printing processes really didn’t do an adequate job in describing the colour and surface of those products. Unsurprisingly, we ended up developing custom forms of paper and custom inks.”
Now that the greatest hits book is released, Ive should have time to more fully devote himself to his other side-projects. This year alone, he has designed a fancy Christmas tree for Claridges with longtime collaborator Marc Newson, learned how to make things out of ceramic for the latest version of the Apple Watch (the iteration of Ive’s last passion project, the gold Apple Watch Edition), and developed “a whole new nine-step process” for making one version of the iPhone 7 extra shiny.
With all that work, it’s no wonder he hasn’t had time to figure out how to get rid of the unsightly camera nubbin on iPhones and iPads. Maybe Ive just needs to relax in a commune for a bit, to get his head back in the game. Steer clear of the llamas, though.
