Books — Consumed
2014 · Hartmut Esslinger
Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple
Esslinger pulls back the curtain on the formative years when Apple transitioned from beige boxes to design-forward hardware. The book documents Frog Design's creation of the Snow White design language—the horizontal lines, soft curves, and clean proportions that unified Apple's product line from 1984 to 1990. What stands out is the rigor: Esslinger's team didn't just style products, they built a complete visual system governing everything from industrial design to graphics.
The working relationship with Jobs gets detailed attention, showing how their shared belief in design as competitive advantage shaped decisions. Esslinger writes with technical precision about proportion, material choices, and manufacturing constraints. The book includes extensive process sketches and prototypes that reveal how ideas evolved from concept to production.
This is essential reading for understanding how Apple became Apple. Before Ive, before the iMac, Frog Design established that consumer electronics could be objects of desire. The book serves as both historical document and design process case study, showing how a coherent design philosophy gets implemented across an entire product ecosystem.