The Cultural Significance of a Single Designed Object

I have chosen this subject as I feel the subject matter I aim to explore is at the height of its popularity, instantly recognisable and has changed not only my life, but a whole generation: Apple’s iPod.

Apple Incorporated released its first generation iPod on October 2001 with the slogan ‘1,000 songs in your pocket’. This would completely change the way we would listen to and collect music. Although the idea of downloading music was not new, it would be the user friendly design of the iPod and the simplicity of its downloading site ‘iTunes’ which would stand it head and shoulders above its competitors.

“Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works.” Steve Jobs interview with New York Times in 2003.

The original design of the iPod was revolutionary in itself. With its androgynous shape, all white case and minimalistic controls, it was pleasing to the eye and easy to use. I recall when I first purchased an iPod: it wasn’t just the technology I was buying but the image it portrayed. Although the device itself was rarely on show, everyone would know you owned an iPod purely by the iconic all white earphones associated with it.

This was not the first example of Apple combining innovative technology and design, the original Apple Macintosh released in 1984 was the first personal computer that was not only desirable in design, but introduced the application MacPaint and the Mouse. In a recent documentary celebrating the life of Steve Jobs, there was a memorable story where Jobs visited John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s house for their son Sean’s ninth birthday. Jobs gave Lennon one of the first ‘Macs’ and proceeded to captivate the audience by teaching the child to use MacPaint. Among the famous guests included Andy Warhol who struggled with the Mouse before finally declaring, “I drew a circle!”

Original Apple Mouse Andy Warhol using MacPaint

With design being associated with Apple throughout its existence, it was imperative to have a logo that was not only recognisable but thought provoking. The earliest Apple logo designed by Ronald Wayne in 1976 features Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree where he derived his theorems of gravity. It was inspired by a quotation by Wordsworth that was also inscribed into the logo that said “Newton...a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought”. This was soon replaced by the logo that we recognise today. Designed by Rob Janoff, it depicts a multicoloured apple with a bite taken out off its right hand side. The most thought provoking theory behind the inspiration of this logo is that it is in homage to Alan Turing, the father of modern computing who committed suicide by biting into a cyanide-laced apple.

Although design has always been a