Although his focus was on the Macintosh, Jobs wanted to create a consistent design language for all Apple products. So he set up a contest to choose a world-class designer who would be for Apple what Dieter Rams was for Braun. The project was code-named Snow White, not because of his preference for the color but because the products to be designed were code-named after the seven dwarfs. The winner was Hartmut Esslinger, a German designer who was responsible for the look of Sony’s Trinitron televisions. Jobs flew to the Black Forest region of Bavaria to meet him and was impressed not only with Esslinger’s passion but also his spirited way of driving his Mercedes at more than one hundred miles per hour.

盡管喬布斯關注的重點在麥金塔電腦上，但他還在尋求為所有的蘋果產(chǎn)品創(chuàng)造統(tǒng)一的設計風格。于是，在杰里·馬諾克和非正式團體“蘋果設計協(xié)會”的幫助下，喬布斯組織了一次選拔賽，為蘋果挑選世界級的設計師，如同博朗公司的迪特爾·拉姆斯一樣。這個計劃命名為“白雪公主”，起這個名字并不是因為對白色的偏愛，而是因為比賽中需要選手設計的產(chǎn)品是以七個小矮人的名字命名的。最終的贏家是德國設計師哈特穆特·艾斯林格（HartmutEsslinger），他曾負責設計了索尼特麗瓏電視的外觀。喬布斯飛到巴登-符騰堡州的黑森林地區(qū)與他會面，給喬布斯留下深刻印象的不僅是艾斯林格的激情，還有他開著奔馳以超過100英里的時速狂奔的勇猛精神。

Even though he was German, Esslinger proposed that there should be a “born-in-America gene for Apple’s DNA” that would produce a “California global” look, inspired by “Hollywood and music, a bit of rebellion, and natural sex appeal.” His guiding principle was “Form follows emotion,” a play on the familiar maxim that form follows function. He produced forty models of products to demonstrate the concept, and when Jobs saw them he proclaimed, “Yes, this is it!” The Snow White look, which was adopted immediately for the Apple IIc, featured white cases, tight rounded curves, and lines of thin grooves for both ventilation and decoration. Jobs offered Esslinger a contract on the condition that he move to California. They shook hands and, in Esslinger’s not-so-modest words, “that handshake launched one of the most decisive collaborations in the history of industrial design.” Esslinger’s firm, frogdesign,2 opened in Palo Alto in mid-1983 with a $1.2 million annual contract to work for Apple, and from then on every Apple product has included the proud declaration “Designed in California.”

艾斯林格雖然是德國人，但他提出“蘋果產(chǎn)品的DNA中應該有土生土長的美國基因”有獨特的加利福尼亞風情，就像“好萊塢和音樂一樣，有一點叛逆，還有自然散發(fā)的性感魅力”。他的指導思想是“形式追隨情感”，這套用了那旬眾人皆知的“形式追隨功能”。他制作了40個模型來闡述這一概念，當喬布斯看到這些模型的時候，他宣布：“對，就是這樣！”“白雪公主”的外觀立即被運用到了AppleII上：白色的機箱，緊致的圓潤曲線，既能散熱又起到裝飾作用的細密通風槽。喬布斯給艾斯林格提供了一份合同，條件是他必須搬到加州居住。兩人握手達成了協(xié)議，用艾斯林格不那么謙虛的話說：“那次握手開啟了工業(yè)設計史上最為決定性的一次合作。”艾斯林格的公司——青蛙設計①——1983年年中在帕洛奧圖成立，并從蘋果公司得到了一份每年120萬美元的大合同，從那時起，所有的蘋果產(chǎn)品上都可以見到這句自豪的宣言：加利福尼亞設計。

From his father Jobs had learned that a hallmark of passionate craftsmanship is making sure that even the aspects that will remain hidden are done beautifully. One of the most extreme—and telling—implementations of that philosophy came when he scrutinized the printed circuit board that would hold the chips and other components deep inside the Macintosh. No consumer would ever see it, but Jobs began critiquing it on aesthetic grounds. “That part’s really pretty,” he said. “But look at the memory chips. That’s ugly. The lines are too close together.”

喬布斯從父親身上學到，充滿激情的工藝就是要確保即使是隱藏的部分也被做得很漂亮。這種理念最極端也是最有說服力的例子之一，就是喬布斯會仔細檢查印刷電路板。電路板上是芯片和其他部件，深藏于麥金塔的內(nèi)部，沒有哪個用戶會看到它，但喬布斯還是會從美學角度對它進行評判。“那個部分做得很漂亮，”他說，“但是，看看這些存儲芯片。真難看。這些線靠得太近了。”

One of the new engineers interrupted and asked why it mattered. “The only thing that’s important is how well it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board.”

一名新手工程師打斷他說這有什么關系，“只要機器能運行起來就行，沒人會去看電路板的”。

Jobs reacted typically. “I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.” In an interview a few years later, after the Macintosh came out, Jobs again reiterated that lesson from his father: “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

喬布斯的反應和往常一樣：“我想要它盡可能好看一點，就算它是在機箱里面的。優(yōu)秀的木匠不會用劣質(zhì)木板去做柜子的背板，即使沒人會看到。”幾年之后，在麥金塔電腦上市后的一次訪談中，喬布斯再一次提到了當年父親對他的教導：“如果你是個木匠，你要做一個漂亮的衣柜，你不會用膠合板做背板，雖然這一塊是靠著墻的，沒人會看見。你自己知道它就在那兒，所以你會用一塊漂亮的木頭去做背板。如果你想晚上睡得安穩(wěn)的話，就要保證外觀和質(zhì)量都足夠好。”

From Mike Markkula he had learned the importance of packaging and presentation. People do judge a book by its cover, so for the box of the Macintosh, Jobs chose a full-color design and kept trying to make it look better. “He got the guys to redo it fifty times,” recalled Alain Rossmann, a member of the Mac team who married Joanna Hoffman. “It was going to be thrown in the trash as soon as the consumer opened it, but he was obsessed by how it looked.” To Rossmann, this showed a lack of balance; money was being spent on expensive packaging while they were trying to save money on the memory chips. But for Jobs, each detail was essential to making the Macintosh amazing.

在邁克·馬庫拉的影響下，喬布斯把父親的“關心隱藏部分的美觀”的理念進一步延伸：漂亮的產(chǎn)品包裝和展示也同樣重要。人們確實是會“以貌取物”的。所以，喬布斯為麥金塔電腦的包裝選擇了全彩設計，并不斷對其進行改善。“他讓大家重做了50次，”阿蘭·羅斯曼（AlainRossmatm）回憶說，他是Mac團隊的成員之一，后來娶了喬安娜·霍夫曼，“用戶一打幵包裝，這些東西就會被扔進垃圾箱，但他還是執(zhí)著于包裝的式樣。”對于羅斯曼來說，這顯得有點失衡：一方面大把的錢被花在了昂貴的包裝上，另一方面他們又試圖在存儲芯片上壓縮成本。但對于喬布斯來說，要讓麥金塔在性能和外觀上都給人驚艷的感覺，每一個細節(jié)都是至關重要的。

When the design was finally locked in, Jobs called the Macintosh team together for a ceremony. “Real artists sign their work,” he said. So he got out a sheet of drafting paper and a Sharpie pen and had all of them sign their names. The signatures were engraved inside each Macintosh. No one would ever see them, but the members of the team knew that their signatures were inside, just as they knew that the circuit board was laid out as elegantly as possible. Jobs called them each up by name, one at a time. Burrell Smith went first. Jobs waited until last, after all forty-five of the others. He found a place right in the center of the sheet and signed his name in lowercase letters with a grand flair. Then he toasted them with champagne. “With moments like this, he got us seeing our work as art,” said Atkinson.

最終的設計方案敲定后，喬布斯把麥金塔團隊的成員都召集到一起，舉行了一個儀式。他說：“真正的藝術家會在作品上簽上名字。”于是他拿出一張繪圖紙和一只三福筆（Sharpiepen）,讓所有人都簽上了自己的名字。這些簽名被刻在了每一臺麥金塔電腦的內(nèi)部。除了維修電腦的人，沒有人會看到這些名字。但團隊里的每個成員都知道那里面有自己的名字，就如同每個人都知道那里面的電路板已經(jīng)被設計得盡善盡美了。喬布斯一個一個叫出大家的名字，讓他們簽名。伯勒爾·史密斯是第一個。喬布斯等到了最后，其他45個人都簽過名后，他在圖紙的正中間找到了一個位置，用小寫字母瀟灑地簽下了自己的名字。然后他以香檳向大家祝酒。“在這樣的時刻，他讓我們覺得自己的成果就是藝術品。”阿特金森說——

注釋：

①作者注：2000年，“青蛙設計”（frogdesign）更名為“青蛙設計”（frogdesign）并遷至舊金山。當初艾斯林格為公司挑選這樣一個名字，不僅是因為青蛙具有變態(tài)（形態(tài)變化）的能力，也是為了向自己的祖國德意志聯(lián)邦共和國〖（f）ederalRepublic（o）f（g）ermany〗致敬。他說：“小寫字母體現(xiàn)的是包豪斯運動的無層級語言觀念，強化了公司民主合作的精神。”