Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple Flexibound – January 7, 2014

I was a product manager and Apple /// Business Unit Manager during the period Hartmut covers in this superior read. Start-ups, innovators, product managers and all product leaders can learn exactly what they must do to be successful over the long term. Anybody writing about Apple and Steve Jobs must read this book. It corrects some of the myths we have all heard about. It reflects everything perfectly that I recall as a manager at Apple in the early years.I notice only one, and that is unusual for such a book, error. Hartmut says he bought and Apple //e in 1978. Not possible. The //e didn't come out until late 1982 or early 1983. So either the date of the conference where Hartmut first saw the Apple // is wrong or he saw and bought the original Apple //. Not a big deal, though.

Frog design is one of my all-time favorite design studios and they did a remarkable job with Apple by designing products pre Jony Ive era. I guess since Jobs has now passed away we'll see a flood of books describing him as a person and this book is no exception. However the tone of voice is more or less warm and it seems that Hartmut and Jobs did share a common view on things.This is a good read, nice layout and pictures from frog design archives including some crazy futuristic sketches. Good background on designs and motivations.Well worth the money invested.

I love this book. I have respected Hartmut Esslinger and Frog Design since their early involvement with Apple and Steve Jobs. This book is a treasure. It is loaded with images of models/prototypes that allow a glimpse into the design process. I found the text to be a little self serving, but his message about the integration of design in what could other wise be engineering driven product development is as timely now as it was in the 1980s when he brought the model to Apple. Excuse me while I go back and peruse the book again.

Can only give this one 2 stars. IMHO the title is very misleading. This is a book about the design proposals that frog designs presented to Apple up to the early 80's. Some of the designs are interesting, but most never saw the light of day. If anything, frog can claim a win on the Apple //c, but that's about it.The author claims that the first Mac flopped because Steve jobs ignored frog's efforts to re-design it. And claims that they were right, saying the design of the Apple //c led it to sell 50,000 in the first month.At the end, they even claim that their designs can be seen in the 21st century Apple products like the iPad and iPhone.Meh.I own 4 different "Apple Design" books, and this is the only one that I'm going to sell to Half Price Books. Not a fan.

Fans of Apple and it's product designs will treasure this book. Esslinger stakes his rightful claim to his role in Apple's product designs. He details "behind the scenes" relating to his work with Steve and Apple, Inc. His style is matter of fact and creditable. While I read it in one sitting, this book will serve as a history and design reference book I go back to. He included dozens of full and half page photos of prototype designs too.

The main selling point of this book is the numerous photographs of Frog's design concepts, both in foam core and more detailed plastic models (including the aptly named "MacBook" or what some have called the "iPad //c"). Esslinger details his history with design and Apple in particular, and tells a compelling if necessarily one-sided story of creating some of the most recognized (and could-have-been most recognized) computers in the world.

I looked at multiple books about Apple's early years. My teenage son loves the history of Apple and I was looking for a book that would keep his attention. He loves this book. The drawings/pictures are great and it's laid out in a way that keeps his interest.

A really fascinating view of what could have been. There are so many design cues that pop up in products ten years later.

Ne ho comprati tre: uno per me e due per altrettanti miei amici “Apple maniaci” che sono rimasti molto contenti del regalo.Personalmente lo trovo un libro interessante e ben progettato, con foto, schizzi ed appunti ben selezionati:

Es súper interesante todo lo que dice, excelente libro de reseña

Me parece una maravilla de libro, con un diseño gráfico y maquetación estupendas, y con un montón de información y fotografías que es prácticamente imposible de conseguir de otro modo.Se muestra el desarrollo de estrategias y lenguajes de diseño, prototipos nunca vistos, pruebas de concepto, y parte de la historia de Apple visto desde la perspectiva de Hartmut Esslinger (Frog Design), una figura clave en el diseño industrial.Lo dicho: un libro imprescindible para cualquier interesado en Apple y/o en el diseño industrial.

This book is interesting as it is but both the title and the presentation are somewhat misleading.The catchy title suggests that tips on how Apple supposedly became successful by “keeping it simple” are included. Not so much. A more appropriate title would have been, “How frog design provided all the great ideas that made Apple successful”, or “Esslinger and Jobs were right and the others were wrong”.The presentation/format is more appropriate for a, well, business presentation: about 2/5 of the book are pictures. If there is a design language in the pictures provided, it's not obvious to the casual reader. For example, it's not clear to me why Apple accepted some of the proposed models and rejected others as they all seem to be Snow White-compliant. This would be okay if the actual story were not rather short. It’s about how frog design, a German industrial design company, ended up working with Apple and left its imprint on every Apple product, including the more recent ones.I think the key message in this book is that, even today, Apple is busy developing products based on designs and user interfaces that it came up with in the ‘80s.

Fantastic book with unseen designs from early Apple history. Unseen prototype designs for Macs that never were, evolution of designs, prototype phones and tablets, etc.