Apple today announced that it is releasing a new hardbound book detailing 20 years of its design. Titled “Designed by Apple in California,” the book will contain 450 different photographs of Apple’s past and current products. Apple says that the book is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.
The photos range from the 1998’s iMac to the 2015 Apple Pencil. Additionally, it will detail the materials and techniques used by Apple’s design team for their various breakthrough in design innovation.
“The idea of genuinely trying to make something great for humanity was Steve’s motivation from the beginning, and it remains both our ideal and our goal as Apple looks to the future,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “This archive is intended to be a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years. We hope it brings some understanding to how and why they exist, while serving as a resource for students of all design disciplines.”
Apple says that it has worked closely with different groups of people to make this photo book possible. This includes shots by photographer Andrew Zuckerman in a “deliberately spare style.”
In the book’s foreword, Ive says:
While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the creative process, or product development. It is an objective representation of our work that, ironically, describes who we are. It describes how we work, our values, our preoccupations, and our goals. We have always hoped to be defined by what we do rather than by what we say.
We strive, with varying degrees of success, to define objects that appear effortless. Objects that appear so simple, coherent, and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative.
Apple will be offering its “Designed by Apple in California” book in two sizes. The book will be printed on “specially milled, custom-dyed paper with gilded matte silver edges, using eight color separations and low-ghost ink.” Apple says that it has developed the linen-bound hardcover of the book over a period of eight years.
The book will be available exclusively through Apple’s online store and select Apple Stores from November 16 in Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the United States. The small (10.20” x 12.75”) book is priced at $199, while the larger (13” x 16.25”) one is priced at $299.
Update: Apple’s design guru has talked about the book and given a sneak peek into Apple’s design studio in an interview with a Japanese website?
[Via Apple]