Thanks for that. After reading that line on TFA, as well as the rationalization for the lack of color on the card (seriously??), I had an image of a misty-eyed fanboy staring longingly at the business card while getting strangely aroused.
Yeah this is just fires up my dual tone WWII era fan-boy siren.[1] This intimates Jobs somehow innovated massively in typography, when we see tons of logos experimenting with typography throughout the 20th century (and much further into the past). The same intimations are made about the mouse, about window managers and about smart phones and tablet computers. When in reality Apple should be praised for execution, attention to detail, UI and public relations rather than invention or innovation. Ditto for the OS, basically the underlying system is taken from BSD and the UI is improved and marketed. Ditto for Webkit.
According to Jobs, he's the only reason computers have typography whatsoever:
> Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
> None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
Apparently the Xerox Star had basic desktop publishing with a variety of typefaces in 1981, so Jobs's calligraphy course may not have been the history-changing event he makes it out to be. "Beautiful" is, of course, subjective.
I wonder if you've noticed but the rendered text on websites viewed from a mac is very different from the same on windows. On windows the fonts aren't as smooth as on the mac.
I always dread viewing the windows version of websites I develop after I did them on my mac. They make a good looking website into a crappy looking one because its headings, its text becomes more pixelated.
The good thing is... (There's always a good thing). Now I know how much typography matters in making things look good.
That man was a founder of a successful tech company before I was born. Somehow, being reminded of that makes me hesitant to perform any future acts of technical punditry, specially when arguing against his judgment.
Obama has a Mac, and his Mac has a Pacman on it. Originally OP is going to be a site on both Apple / Obama news, but there are just so many interesting Apple stories so we scrapped the non-Apple part.
PS. Thinking of changing site name. So if you have any ideas, please contact us.
408-996-1010 is the corporate switchboard for the past 30 years. Buildings around Bandley Drive used to be warehouses. My old boss at Apple told me back in the day if you wanted a job you just showed up at the door ready to work. A few weeks later if you lasted you're hired.
> My old boss at Apple told me back in the day if you wanted a job you just showed up at the door ready to work. A few weeks later if you lasted you're hired.
Sorta sound like how people joined Project Mayhem in Fight Club.
I wonder if I'll go from being called "Steven" to "Steve" when I'm a billionaire. I would think that having that much money would make you want to use your formal name more.
Um, I'd get a little more Apple history under your belt before writing the commentary next time.
"I wonder who will answer that phone number?"
Since it's still the same number 30 years later, I'd guess Apple would. It's Apple's switchboard.