Macintosh - a computer that is always combined creativity and technology

Today, computers play an integral role in any creative work - from photos to cross-stitch. But once computers and artists were on opposite sides, and well treated without each other. For many it is Apple Macintosh erased this line. Fastcodesign author Luc Dormael, allocated 5 highlightsOnce and forever changed the world of creativity and technology.

Mac computer has turned into a tool for the creation of masterpieces

When the Macintosh came out, computers took up entire rooms, weighed 50 tons, and is not meant monitors. With the introduction of the Macintosh, computers have become accessible and understandable to a wide audience, which also included artists, writers, musicians and designers, those who had not seen before in a computer useless.

"We tried to create a machine that will interest people with creative inclinations, - says Bill Atkinson, an engineer who worked on the first Mac and part-time photographer and naturalist. - The question was not whether they will be able to work effectively with our computer, we wanted to create something that will bring pleasure to the use of "

It Atkinson created MacPaint - the world's first widely available raster editing: "No one hired me to create it. I did it because I wanted to. "

MacPaint creator was amazed by what people create with the help of his offspring: "Some things were simply stunning. One of the most famous comic book was created by Mike Senzom simply incredible "

Then I thought, "Wow! Yes, we also gave people the freedom to create with the help of a computer! "

MacPaint laid the foundation for programs like Photoshop (which, incidentally, first appeared on the Mac).

"For me, programs such as Photoshop - this seemed a logical continuation of my work at Apple. When I worked on the Mac, my goal was to create a tool that would provide opportunities for creative people. Today, Photoshop helps me in my work with pictures, and in fact I did not even have to create it yourself "

WYSIWYG democratized technology

MacPaint users unambiguously hinted that the Macintosh is going to be a second home for the people's creativity, however, he was not the only hint.

For artists, a huge breakthrough in the Mac became WYSIWYG (Eng. What You See Is What You Get, «What you see is what you get") - the property of programs, which means that what people see on the monitor is fully corresponds to the result to be obtained on the print. Innovations such as the program for PageMaker desktop publishing meant that now everyone can create and send print materials even when working at home.

Add to that the software MIDI-sequencer, allowing you to create electronic music and such tools like QuickTime, which with the advent in 1991 appears on the screen Mac HD video quality. Macintosh was a democratization of technology - a world where everyone had the opportunity to open the program you want and get down to business.

Mac made us all think creatively

Today it is impossible to overestimate the enormous change that was a Mac GUI. He did not just make your computer more attractive, he suffered a computer center of the universe from the world of logical approach of engineers in the hands of creative people who are accustomed to think abstractly.

"Mac turned to the people who obviously did not like computers," - writes the author of popular books on the Macintosh, Simon Garfield.

Mac gave people the feeling that you can create something interesting, even without thinking in the way it is created. The interface was so intuitive that you did not have to worry about entering commands or something that would be like a little code. I think that for anyone who is involved or how the work of this machine has been designed to not only help, but in any case not interfere with what you are doing

"One of the most fundamental changes with the advent of the GUI is that no longer computer operated by the user, and the user has used the computer as a tool, "- says Bill Atkinson.

Even the icons become art

New opportunities for artists with the advent of the graphical interface and discussed before the Mac. However, it took the appearance of the artist from the world of design, Syuzar Cair that even icons have become full-fledged works of art.

"I find it difficult to talk about the industry in general, but when I started to work on the Mac team, I was there only as a graphic designer," - says Kar. She has worked within the strict limits: 32 pixels x 32 pixels for each icon that is pre-painted by hand in a notebook into a cell. Care should not only create the perfect graphic metaphor for the behavior of the computer (for example, bomb meant failure in the system), but also to filter them to the most unambiguous and comprehensible to the user forms.

Today, CARE continues to enjoy the Macintosh to work in his design studio: "One of the recent projects included the development of fonts and icons for Metawatch. I love challenges, especially in regard to small screens. I would, for example, happily worked on the interface for displays in cars "

Mac has become the inspiration for creativity

"In part, Mac for me has always been associated with the music," - says Simon Garfield: "I was 17 when punk music started to gain momentum, and it seemed to me that it appeals to me personally. The same thing happened with a Mac. Somehow, you start to feel that it is specially designed for you. Today, this idea is impossible, despite the fact that computers are now all targeted to users. But millions of other people have the same computer as you. In the '80s, when I bought my first Mac, i felt as if his ads say it with me - it was a real marketing miracle "

The analogy with the punk music suits also because like many low-quality recordings made by beginners groups in the garage, the first Mac models were likely not based on technological excellence, and on the utopian vision future.

"For generations, Mac was far from perfect as a machine, but the ideas that underlie were incredibly contagious, "- says Linder Kani, editor of Cult of Mac, and author of the unofficial biography of John Quince.

Agrees with him and the author of the science fiction works of Douglas Adams, a well-known fan of Apple: "In my opinion, those who bought one of the first Macintosh in love not only in the car, which was slow and very weak, and how much in itself is a romantic idea cars. It is this romantic idea helped me to endure the realities of work in the Mac 128K ".

Today we can say with certainty that in spite of the fact that for thirty years the technical side of Mac stopped to give way, "romantic", Apple is still the company created by the artist for artists.

And let it always will be.

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