Page 238 - The Apple Experience

nobody would see the board anyway, Jobs reacted, “I want it to be as
beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box.”
4
In addition to his father’s influence, Jobs’s design aesthetic was shaped by

the Bauhaus movement of industrial design, which stressed simple, elegant,

and beautiful design elements. “So that’s our approach,” Jobs once
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proclaimed to his Apple team. “Very simple. We’re shooting for Museum of

Modern Art quality. The way we’re running the company, the product

design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really
simple.” Here’s the problem most brands face when trying to make things

simple and elegant—hard work gets in the way. It takes effort, commitment,

and courage to keep things simple. Steve Jobs had all three.

Cardboard’s Most Demanding Customer

I once visited a manufacturing plant in the central valley town of Modesto,

California. I was doing some research for an upcoming speech to a group of

manufacturing executives, and some members of the group ran this particular

company. The massive building was filled with highly complex equipment to

convert corrugated cardboard into all sorts of boxes. Manufacturing product

boxes is extremely complex, requiring highly specialized and very expensive

equipment to make millions of boxes with displays or ones that are folded in

complex dimensions.
This particular manufacturer had many clients, including pharmaceutical

companies, food brands, and computer makers. But its most demanding

client—far tougher than all the others—was Apple. Every detail matters to

Apple: how curves look on the edges of a box, how letters feel to the touch,

how easy the boxes are to open. Everything had to enhance the experience

customers enjoyed when opening their products. For Apple, corrugated