::slingthought::

Flashback to 1995.

Hootie and The Blowfish, Allanis Morissette and Pearl Jam were playing on my radio.

I was using my Mac PowerPC 6100/66.  That’s 66MHZ and believe it or not my machine ran both Illustrator and Photoshop at that speed, not at the same time of course.

It was then that I fell in love with Apple.  I think it was the combination of my year old mac and the first interactive experience that seduced me into the online world.  It was Apple’s flagship online service dubbed eWorld.

What was eWorld?  It was “a place where you can send and receive electronic mail, access information about everything from news to finance, and find great things to do – all from the desktop of your Macintosh computer.”

I got this direct marketing piece and instantly signed up for the service based solely on the promises contained in the marketing information.  It certainly helped that the design of the brochure had a hip illustration style.

The “town hall” metaphor with unique illustration style was the first online user interface I remember that brought delight.  Despite the slow load of images over a modem/phoneline (probably 28.8kbps), Apple managed to curb my appetite for design and information all in one place.

Take a close look at the marketing of the service from the brochure.  There’s a screen capture of what the UI looked like at the time.  Visitors would access different buildings for information ranging from business to news, arts and leisure, or entertainment.

Here’s a brief history from the book Apple Confidential 2.0…

“Unfortunately, eWorld was slow to catch on for a variety of reasons.  By mid-1994, the Internet was beginning its meteoric rise,  and there were already several other proprietary online services, such as America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, and Prodigy.  Due to a lack of cohesive strategy, it wasn’t until late 1995 that the eWorld client software was included with every computer sold.  In the meantime, AppleLink came installed on PowerBooks, and client software for some of Apple’s online competitors was bundled on desktop Macs, while eWorld was left out.  Another problem was the pricing.  A monthly subscription set you back $8.95, which included just two free hours of evening or weekend use, with subsequent hours priced at $4.95 on the evenings or weekends, or $7.90 per hour from 6 AM to 6 PM weekdays.  Apple intentionally kept the price high to moderate demand, but failed to adjust it downward when the demand never materialized.”

Being a big promoter and user of visual thinking, and a puppeteer myself, I found this old clip of Kermit explaining visual thinking to be as hip as his dialog.  View the video.

Kermit explains Visual Thinking

I’m a huge fan of 80s arcade design.  Aside from the nostalgia of playing games, I’ve always had an appreciation for the typography, design and illustration used to attract “players”.  When I came across these marker renderings for cabinet designs, I was quite delighted to get a glimpse behind the scenes for the concepts that drive the physical design of some of Atari’s arcade cabinets.  There are even some concepts for how to display the cabinets in an arcade setting.  Enjoy.

Marker rendering of an Atari Arcade Console Concept

Here’s the full collection of Atari Console Concept images…

Ed Emberley has been an influence as far back as I remember. As a child, I poured over his books at the library and spent countless hours copying the steps for drawing characters and objects illustrated in his books. I have a deeper appreciation for the simplicity and masterful execution of design and sequential information graphics that appear in his work. His visual explanation of color, line and shape and the ease at which he walks you through a drawing can make just about anyone an artist for the moment.

Four of Ed Emberley books from my personal collection

If you’re not familiar with his work, I’ve assembled links to help you get to know him.

Ed Emberley Books available through Amazon.com

Find Ed Emberley Books at a Library near you

Ed Emberley’s Website

A printable example of his style and sequence drawing technique