Innovation, time and fonts

Good morning/evening/night! I'll leave you to choose the appropriate greeting based on when you're opening this email.

I am excited to bring you the first issue of The Almost Invisible. A project I have been thinking about for many months and spent the last few weeks setting up.

Many many thanks from the bottom of my heart for trusting me with your email address and time. I will do my best to make it worth your while. Without any further ado, let's jump into today's content.

i for Internet. Not innovation.

Roughly 23 years ago, Steve Jobs rejoined Apple after being forced out the company a few years earlier. Apple was almost bankrupt then and was dying in spirit too. Too many useless/directionless products. And, the release of a certain product steered them away from the grave - the iMac. Steve Jobs initially decided to call it the MacMan. He approached his Ad Agency with this, but Ken Segall, an employee at Apple’s Ad Agency convinced Jobs to think different and name it the iMac. Thereby, starting the 'i' naming system at Apple.

While ‘i’ is widely believed to stand for innovation, it actually stands for Internet. In Jobs' own words: "number one use consumers tell us they want a computer for, which is to get on the Internet, simply and fast.", and that is what it was named after.

The following excerpt is from one of Ken Segall's interviews:

"We actually presented five names to him (Steve Jobs) the first time. I should quit while I'm ahead, but we had names like Macster, Mac Rocket, things that were not very good. We saved iMac for last because I was pretty sure it was the killer name.

"Steve hated the first four names, and I showed him iMac and he was like, 'I hate it also, you've got another week'. So we came back a whole week later, showed him three new names, and he didn't like any of those, and we then said 'But we still like iMac'. And at that point he said: 'I don't hate it this week, but I don't like it either, so now you've got two days'. But the next day I saw a friend at Apple who said 'did you hear Steve had the name put on one of the models and he's showing it around and he's getting good reactions'. I never said another thing, there was never any great moment – there wasn't an email or a phone call. And for that we were all very thankful, because had we not then you might be sitting there with your PhoneMans, and your PodMans, and your PadMans. Wouldn't that be silly."

Can't imagine a PhoneMan 11 Pro Max. God bless you, Ken!

Side note: The first iMac also began the widely-criticised Apple-way of doing things. It was the first to cut off the Floppy Disk, back then. About the same reaction people gave for the headphone jack going away. Apple also introduced mainstream USB to the masses with the first iMac . A similar move that Apple made with the mainstream use of USB C on the Mac line in the recent years.

Do you remember Jeff Goldblum? The man who gave one of cinema's most iconic lines "Life... finds a way" in Jurassic Park? He was involved in making the first ad for iMac. It's beautiful and, truly Apple in its essence. Have a look:

Stuck in Time

Don't we all miss travelling? Even to the other side of city? Peacefully? Breathing freely without the fear of death? Phew! Well this part has to do with time and travelling!

Did you know that, for a brief period of time in 2016, there was a guy inside a clock painting time at the Amsterdam Schipol airport? A guy who was doing it every minute. Every day. Yup, see it for yourself:

Unbelievable, right? That's precisely what Dutch designer, Maarten Baas, the artist who created this piece wanted you to think. He called it "The Real Time". This incredible art installation, a part of his Real Time series, was well designed and left all the viewers amazed.

Let's break the design down:

• It was, in reality, a large screen displaying a pre-recorded video of a man painting from behind a translucent glass
• The lack of clarity in the video added to it looking more real
• It was a 12 hour video performance that was pre-recorded and played.
• The whole screen was encased inside a suspended box with the dimensions making it look like it could hold a painter inside
• The painter wore uniforms of the same color that the Schipol airport employees would; but this was also the reason for the artwork - a tribute to all the airport employees
• Lastly, and the most brilliant touch, the box had a ladder leading down to it and small stand to make it seem believable that a guy actually made his way there

I'd have missed my flight for sure had I seen this.

Obama and Biden - friends in life, and fonts

For the last piece today, I want to draw your attention to the second most important thing after Covid - The US elections. And specifically to the Biden-Harris team. But, we aren't going to talk Politics here. Instead, about fonts.

If you remember, Obama's HOPE poster had become a design icon ever since its release. And, the word Hope in it was typed out in the font known as Gotham. Cool name for a cool font. (Also, if you love that font, the free Google Font, Montserrat is a a lovely alternative to it.)

Fast forward to more than a decade later, and Biden, who was Obama's VP and running mate back then, is now a candidate for becoming the most powerful man in the world. The Biden-Harris campaign has decided to use the fonts - Decimal and Mercury in their campaigns.

The Blue font is Decimal and the Red font is Mercury

It was designed by the same company, Hoefler & Co. who had designed for other iconic entities like the Rolling Stone, Twitter, and Tiffany & Co. In the fonts/typography world, Hoefler is considered to be one of the most iconic type foundries.

Glad to see Biden taking a lot of inspiration from Obama's campaign.

The Decimal font has been inspired by the fonts put on watch dials over many years. I hope to cover this in the next issue.

So happy you got to the end of the newsletter. I really had a blast writing this. Hope you enjoyed reading it too.

I intend to keep a read time of about 6-8 minutes per newsletter. This newsletter should just about be there. I have some more awesome things planned for The Almost Invisible and shall keep you posted in the upcoming emails.

Have a great week ahead! See you on Friday!