Scanning Around With Gene: So Long, Steve

25

Originally published October 7, 2011

Many people more qualified than me are writing tributes to Steve Jobs and indeed, I barely know what to say. Mostly I find it sad that four kids have lost their father at too early of an age, and that no matter your success and resources, sometimes life takes a bad turn.

Those of us in the graphic arts industry go back with Apple a long way. Many of you likely have stories about your first Mac in the mid- to late Eighties when it was still a struggle to get out decent work, but when the writing was on the wall that this was the future of graphic design, typesetting, and layout. I’m more interested in your stories than mine — I hope you post them in the Comments section. I’ll help you reminisce by sharing Apple images I’ve published on this website over the years, plus a few others from my collection.

As these ads and product collateral from the Apple 1 circa 1976 reveal, the company was anything but graphically slick in the early days. Click on any image for a larger version, and click here to learn more about the early days of Apple.

Here’s Apple’s first logo, designed by Ronald Wayne, an early partner with the two Steves. Wayne left the company soon after its founding and gave up his 10% ownership in exchange for $800.

By the time the Apple II came around (1977), you could begin to see the influence of design, both industrial and graphic. The young company hired the Regis McKenna ad agency to do these ads (and design the first rainbow Apple logo). And yes, that’s former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan in the third ad.

Things really started to get interesting in 1984 when Apple released the Macintosh to much fanfare. You can learn more about the famous Apple Superbowl ad here. Less successful was the Lisa, pictured below with an early Mac.

The pivotal moment for the graphic arts industry came when Jonathan Seybold put the founders of Adobe, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, together with Steve Jobs. When Adobe’s Postscript met the Mac and the first Apple Laserwriter printer, it made it possible to compose high-quality pages. Here’s an early photo of Steve with Geschke and Warnock.

The rest, as they say, is history. When these photos were taken at Seybold Seminars in 1999, Apple was releasing the G4 Macintosh, the first desktop “super computer,” along with the giant cinema screen. Graphic designers, videographers, and other power users were fully on board with the Macintosh, which had completely changed those industries.

Of course, Apple went on to capture the music market, mobile cell phone market, and lately the e-publishing market. But those of us in graphic arts will always feel like we were there first. And for that we have Steve Jobs to thank. May he rest in peace.

 

Gene Gable has spent a lifetime in publishing, editing and the graphic arts and is currently a technology consultant and writer. He has spoken at events around the world and has written extensively on graphic design, intellectual-property rights, and publishing production in books and for magazines such as Print, U&lc, ID, Macworld, Graphic Exchange, AGI, and The Seybold Report. Gene's interest in graphic design history and letterpress printing resulted in his popular columns "Heavy Metal Madness" and "Scanning Around with Gene" here on CreativePro.com.
  • Anonymous says:

    I still miss “my” IIfx – a great hulking machine that I used to “borrow” from work over the weekends, but back then it was fast, man. Jobs was a unique force in personal computing – I think the common man is going to miss his discerning touch on future developments in computing. Jim (Written on an iMac)

  • Anonymous says:

    My first Mac was the SE. I didn’t really have a legitimate use for it at the time, but I knew I wanted to catch that wave. 25-some years later I can’t imagine what my life would look like without Apple products. Thank you Steve, for changing my life.

    -Jennifer

  • Anonymous says:

    SE30, IIsi, 7100, G3, G4, G5, through to the core 2 duos, and hopefully beyond. The vision of Jobs and by extension the team he put in place, made graphic design and computing on many fronts far more than just using a tool. Creating and consuming became an adventure each time as I stopped in the middle of doing something, and exclaimed “can you believe that they thought of that!” when I discovered a feature or capability that simply amazed me. Thank you, Steve, for expecting and demanding that things be better than “good enough”. Thanks for being the dreamer…and may the dream live on through those you left behind.

  • Anonymous says:

    My first experience using apple was when I was very little, playing a few of the fun educational games at my elementary school. It was something I really enjoyed playing and learning at the same time. It was not until I went to college, I had used mac again when studying graphic design. All of the earlier apple products and today’s mac products are a wonderful invention and I don’t think I could imagine a world without it! RIP Steve Jobs…

  • Anonymous says:

    I bought my first Mac in 1993. I remember having a conversion with my brother about it. He couldn’t understand why I would spend more on a Mac when you could get a PC cheaper and it came with free software. My explanation of Macs being the standard for graphic design fell on deaf (or stubborn ears.) Then a view years later we’re having another conversation, and he tells me he’s buying an iMac! Now he has Mac gadgets that I do. That id the magic of Steve Jobs at work.

  • Anonymous says:

    So does anyone remember HyperCard, that cheerful little programming tool that predicted the WWW experience? How about MacPascal and MacPaint? I’ve worked on PCs at home and work for the last 20 years, but nothing was as fun the hours spent noodling around on those Macs. Thanks Steve J.

  • Anonymous says:

    I can so relate to all these comments! My first real job out of high school was working for a very small country newspaper which my dad bought, just so I could have a job. I remember when the Mac Plus came out and the first of the Apple Laserwriters and I was soooooooo excited! And I convinced my dad that even though it was a huge financial investment ($20,000 here in Australia!) it would mean we could be self sufficient, more professional, have greater flexibility in what we produced. It turned out to be all that and more. I wouldn’t be doing what I do without the Mac, without that inspiration. To this day I still have all Apple stuff, am still delighted constantly by it. Thank you so so much Steve Jobs…you will be very missed.

  • Terry Veiga says:

    Thanks for putting together this great tribute.

    I’ll never forget the very day at university as a first-year computer science major. I was complaining about being behind on a term paper and someone suggested I go to the “Mac Lab” to type and print it. The “Mac” what?!

    From the moment I sat down all the way until I asked the person next to me, “how do I print?,” I was hooked.

    Shortly afterwards I scored my first hand-me-down Mac SE, changed majors and never looked back.

  • Anonymous says:

    Great post The graphic arts industry owes a lot to Apple and its iconic founder, Steve Jobs. RIP Steve jobs! Thanks for everything!
    tile

  • Anonymous says:

    The first G4 introduced in Romania was mine, in 2000. Times when Apple need a special aprove to be allowed in the country. I didn’t know, but I founded out when I started to work allready on him, at MacPixel, six months later.

  • Anonymous says:

    I bought a second hand SE that had a new-fangled thing called a hard-drive. All 20 megs of it. I paid $4,200 CAN for it, and earned it all back by tracing logos for the sign company I worked for in Illustrator 88, logos which had been scanned with an Apple inkjet printer and a Thunder scanner. I created vector .eps files of hundreds of logos at $20 a pop evenings at home. We used a Plus at work and I remember how thrilling it was when Adobe Type Manager came out, and bingo!, no more jaggy screen fonts at sizes other those installed! I can’t believe the work we actually did on those limited systems, but even then, it was 3X faster than doing it by hand with mechanical pens. Here I am, 25 years or so later, and that 20 meg hard-drive is now a 2 terabyte server. I really can’t imagine what my graphic design career would’ve look like without Apple.

  • Anonymous says:

    My first computer experience was with little Apple IIe, producing those print pieces with the hole-y border tracks!! And this was only about 25 years ago! How far we’ve come, I think, as I look at my glorious 27″ iMac… truly an amazing piece of design that I use daily.

    Thanks, Steve, for giving us such beauty and functionality. It’s always been so exciting just waiting to see what Apple will come up with next…I hope and pray that Steve’s ideas and ways of thinking will stay with us. It must have been so hard to leave this life knowing that there was so much more out there, waiting to be made real, to the delight of the human race…

    Another interesting and timely piece, Gene. Thank you.

  • Anonymous says:

    Thanks to Steve’s Mom for giving birth to him. Thanks to Steve’s Parents for adopting him and Thanks to you Steve, for everything. You’ve made our lives better and we miss you aready.

  • Anonymous says:

    Still have my Quadra 805 and my iMac Tangerine with updated 20gb hard drive! Having been on Macs since 1989, I don’t see any reason to stop using the best system there is. I know the insanely great products will still keep coming. Long live His Legacy.

  • Anonymous says:

    It isn’t Apple in the early days, or even the very beginning of the Mac, but one of the essays posted on my own site does relate to the last time we got a completely game-changing upgrade to the Operating System.

    Evidently, you have to watch out for Apple and the 7th iteration of their operating systems…

    https://www.redhen-publications.com/Squirrel.html

  • Anonymous says:

    I remember being a little kid- around the 4th grade- and reading an article about Apple computers in one of my parent’s magazines. Instantly intrigued! All these years later, I’m a graphic designer and illustrator. And were I not, I’d surely be a teacher. Looks like I’d have been a Mac devotee either way.

    Thoroughly enjoyed these images! Most especially:

    The second one down, the RAM specifications and interesting price.

    The Apple II ad, simplicity noted as the ultimate sophistication, an idea they’ve certainly expanded upon.

  • Anonymous says:

    It seems unfair when a creative visionary or artists leaves us at a young age. Several come to mind: James Dean, Walt Disney (65 is not old!), John & George and who can’t forget Kermie singing, “It ain’t easy being green” after Jim left us. It seems with all these creatives, the best was yet to come and we, the recipients feel somewhat robbed. But if their collective legacies remains then we have that to hold on to. Steve had inimitable business savvy coupled with imagineering. He will be missed with hopes Apple will continue it’s mission.

    G Moscato/Moscato Design & Calligraphic Variations

  • Anonymous says:

    At work, I think it was ’84 when we got the new Mac Classic with those tiny screens. We were thrilled to the core. Graphics changed directions overnight. We didn’t even mind the long hours to switch everything over to computers. There was an electrifying energy in Silicone Valley in those days and Steve was the leader, may he rest in peace. Thanks especially for this Scan Around!

    JS

  • Anonymous says:

    I wrote the following eleven years ago about the beginning of my romance with Apple and Macintosh:

    https://lowendmac.com/first/38.html

    Thanks, Steve. You will be missed.

  • Anonymous says:

    In 1989, our middle school 8th grade class got computers for the very first time in our school’s history. An Apple representative came to our class to talk to us about computers. He was very excited for us and that made us excited to. He gave us each an Apple logo sticker too, (which I still have to this day). I remember that day like it was yesterday. My siblings had computers, but this was the first time I was actually allowed to use one myself without getting yelled at. It was so cool! RIP Steve.

  • Kort says:

    I started using Macs in the mid 80s, but not until the 90s did I seriously use them. My first ‘Mac’ was a clone – the PowerCenter 150. Soon to follow was a G3, G4 and then two G5s, and I’ve been keeping in step ever since. I still have a “big” MacPro at work, though running the latest version of OSX. At home we currently have 2 iMacs, and various iOS mobile devices. I love the Apple ecosystem when it comes to user interface and graphic design. It is simply the best (for me).

  • J. R. Rosen says:

    Having a commercial printing company, I heard about Macs in 1984. My first was a 512k with an external 20mb HDD for the extreme price os $4200.00–$2000 for the Mac, $2200 for the HDD! In 1986, Apple came out with the LaserWriter Plus… 300dpi, 4ppm, with 136 resident fonts on board for the whopping high price of $8600.00!!! (I’ve still got all of that equipment) We owned Aldus PageMaker, and Adobe Fonts with ATM. This combination of computer, laser printing, and font handling changed printing forever. This eventually put every typesetter, layout artist, stripper, and platemaker out of work! Apple and Adobe almost single handedly changed the print industry in the course of 10 years.

    I shudder to think of where we’d be today without the Mac… without the iPod… without the iPhone–all revolutionary products, by a revolutionary company!

  • Ralph says:

    I started with a Mac Plus in 1987 (I still have one that works!).
    I’ve gone through most models up to the current latest iMac. Apple has always pushed forward. Though it appears they have been in a bit of an innovation drought lately. I wonder if they suffer from too big to innovate disease? I like them better when they were still hungry.

  • Bill Thrash says:

    Oh the memories! My first was a Mac II, then IIfx at work and a IIcx for home, later a Quadra and then the iMac of which I’ve had 4 versions, my 2015 27-inch being my current machine. Over my graphic art career I was responsible for the purchase of over 60 Macintosh’s!!!

  • >