beachycove, at the risk of quashing your enthusiasm, I've never been a huge fan of the 5xx series. The 575 was based on the 520 "Hook" design. The amazing thing is that when they were trying to adapt the CC to a larger format, they had so many better designs than what they ended up with. To my eye it is kind of an unwieldy Frankenstein's monster and Luddite is correct, there is NOTHING little about it! The only version of the 5xx I can tolerate is the Mac TV because the matte black case has a mitigating effect on the bulk and hideousness of the design. It sort of reminds me of a top heavy Sphinx daring you to touch it lest it fall over.
And here's some trivia for ya: Apple's Industrial Design Group HATED the 520 form factor. It was a design exploration and it was so unanimously disliked they shelved it. It was actually Sculley's idea to revive it in late '92 and demanded IDg deliver a 14" all-in-one in less than six-months. Since engineering called the shots, they had no choice but to let the design go out the door to meet Sculley's demands: engineering literally pulled the detested design off the shelf and put it immediately into production over IDg's objections. Larry Barbera was the project head responsible for the adaptation of the CC and immediately began redesigning the 520 (again because everyone hated it so much) anticipating the release of the PPC-based 5200 series, which I personally much prefer as well. Ironically, engineering ruined that design too as Apple decided to move away from their expensive partnership with Sony and replaced the sleek Trinitron screens with standard shadow-mask CRTs. The effect is something akin to a giant fish eye, which further tainted the 580 as well. For what it's worth, I think the logical successor to the CC is the PowerMac G3 All-In_one.
However, I am in full agreement with your assessment of the Espresso language, which was so named because the design group had just gotten a new espresso maker for their office when they were developing the style. It is among my favorite styles of Apple. I actually detest Snow White, for reasons too numerous to go into in this thread, though I am actually quite fond of the Manock beige Mac era, which sadly never made it out of the classic iconic Mac design. Ironically, all of the designs which you eschew were Jonathan Ives' brainchild who was actually working at Apple throughout the 92-98 era and heavily influenced by it.
Also, of some interest is the transitional era that preceded Espresso called interestingly enough Jaguar. It was during that period that the front bezel radius appeared applied to Snow White designs and developed into the Mac Classic. So the CC definitely had influences that inspired it. Because Apple was still trying to tie new designs to the recognizable Snow White language these hybrids continued to appear up to 1995.
To be clear about the CC, DeIuliis was not the only one involved. Bob Brunner who ran the IDg implemented many of the classic features, like the elephant feet as well as the 6 degree tilt. Larry Barbera also contributed significantly to it as well. However, the PowerBook 500 was all his. Intended to be a 1 year transitional product into the PPC era, DeIuliis was able to design a truly unique product that did not have to allow for future expansion. It was a one-year run that would not be further developed and therefore includes features and details that few other products were allowed to express.
And there is NOTHING beige about any of the 93-98 designs, though the yellowing of the plastic may have you believe as much. Apple's official color for all desktops and peripherals during the 90s is called "Platinum" a light blue-gray color.
And here's some trivia for ya: Apple's Industrial Design Group HATED the 520 form factor. It was a design exploration and it was so unanimously disliked they shelved it. It was actually Sculley's idea to revive it in late '92 and demanded IDg deliver a 14" all-in-one in less than six-months. Since engineering called the shots, they had no choice but to let the design go out the door to meet Sculley's demands: engineering literally pulled the detested design off the shelf and put it immediately into production over IDg's objections. Larry Barbera was the project head responsible for the adaptation of the CC and immediately began redesigning the 520 (again because everyone hated it so much) anticipating the release of the PPC-based 5200 series, which I personally much prefer as well. Ironically, engineering ruined that design too as Apple decided to move away from their expensive partnership with Sony and replaced the sleek Trinitron screens with standard shadow-mask CRTs. The effect is something akin to a giant fish eye, which further tainted the 580 as well. For what it's worth, I think the logical successor to the CC is the PowerMac G3 All-In_one.
However, I am in full agreement with your assessment of the Espresso language, which was so named because the design group had just gotten a new espresso maker for their office when they were developing the style. It is among my favorite styles of Apple. I actually detest Snow White, for reasons too numerous to go into in this thread, though I am actually quite fond of the Manock beige Mac era, which sadly never made it out of the classic iconic Mac design. Ironically, all of the designs which you eschew were Jonathan Ives' brainchild who was actually working at Apple throughout the 92-98 era and heavily influenced by it.
Also, of some interest is the transitional era that preceded Espresso called interestingly enough Jaguar. It was during that period that the front bezel radius appeared applied to Snow White designs and developed into the Mac Classic. So the CC definitely had influences that inspired it. Because Apple was still trying to tie new designs to the recognizable Snow White language these hybrids continued to appear up to 1995.
To be clear about the CC, DeIuliis was not the only one involved. Bob Brunner who ran the IDg implemented many of the classic features, like the elephant feet as well as the 6 degree tilt. Larry Barbera also contributed significantly to it as well. However, the PowerBook 500 was all his. Intended to be a 1 year transitional product into the PPC era, DeIuliis was able to design a truly unique product that did not have to allow for future expansion. It was a one-year run that would not be further developed and therefore includes features and details that few other products were allowed to express.
And there is NOTHING beige about any of the 93-98 designs, though the yellowing of the plastic may have you believe as much. Apple's official color for all desktops and peripherals during the 90s is called "Platinum" a light blue-gray color.