Steve Jobs on typography

This summer I've been reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, so I'm inspired to post some of the more interesting quotes regarding design that I've found.

Here's Steve Jobs talking about typography:

"The minute I dropped out [of Reed College] I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting," he said.

Among them was a calligraphy class that appealed to him after he saw posters on campus that were beautifully drawn. "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."

...."If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would 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." (p41)

More on the reason for sad Mac

While our posts contain lots post-its re Steve Jobs, here's another bit / byte taken from a great The New York Times article by James B. Stewart.

The entire article embodies the goal of great design. Two paras in particular struck me:

1.
“Steve Jobs and Apple never—ever—wanted to be a low-margin commodity producer,” Donald Norman, a former vice president for advanced technology at Apple and author of “Living With Complexity,” told me this week. “Even the Apple II had some charm to it. It was the first personal computer that had professional industrial designers. Before that they were designed strictly by engineers, and they were ugly. Steve was always, if not an artist, then someone who was charmed by style. He had this dream of something beautiful. If it was going to cost more, it didn’t matter. This was in his genes.

2.Mr. Jobs “had an exceptional eye for design, and not just an eye, but an intelligence for design,” Ms. Antonelli said. “We don’t talk just about the looks, but how objects communicate: The specific shape, how it feels in the hand, under the fingers, how you read it in the eye and the mind. This is what Steve cared passionately about.”

The phrase "If it was going to cost more, it didn't matter" puts me in mind of my purchasing a case for my phone on the street a few weeks ago . A sign touted, "Phone cases $5." (Yay! Less than the $40 at the Apple Store. I'm embarrassed to admit that sometimes price does matter to me, but that's not my point here.) I chose a funky design and pulled out a 5 dollar bill. The salesguy gently corrected me.

He: "It's $7.
Me: "But the sign said '$5.'"
He: "Design is extra."

I've been using my street epiphany ever since. Design makes a difference. It's extra.

Photo is a screenshot from The New York Times article.

Sad Mac

Before it's too late,  I wanted to post this "sad mac" sign I saw on the 14th Street Apple Store.

Thank you, Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, from a 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.