The Apple Macintosh was first launched on January 24, 1984 — 40 years ago at the moment. Wishing the Mac a contented birthday, the Folon Basis shared a little-known anecdote: That Steve Jobs as soon as commissioned Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon to give you an illustrated character that might “live” in each machine and shock the proprietor: Mr. Macintosh, aka Mac Man.
Mac designer Andy Hertzfeld recalled listening to the thought from Steve Jobs in 1982 in these phrases:
“Mr. Macintosh is a mysterious little man who lives inside each Macintosh. He pops up every once in a while, when you least expect it, and then winks at you and disappears again. It will be so quick that you won’t be sure if you saw him or not. We’ll plant references in the manuals to the legend of Mr. Macintosh, and no one will know if he’s real or not.”
It might be one other few months earlier than Folon entered the image, Hertzfeld wrote.
“The software team was swamped with more essential work, so we deferred implementing Mr. Macintosh for a while.” However after assembly Folon, “whose work was imbued with a humorous, playfully profound sensibility that [Steve Jobs] thought would be perfect for Mr. Macintosh,” Apple’s co-founder invited the artist to “visit the Mac team in Cupertino for a demo and a potential commission.”
The venture didn’t undergo, however as Hertzfeld wrote, it wasn’t as a result of Folon and Apple didn’t click on.
“Folon seemed fascinated by the embryonic Macintosh” he noticed in 1982, and visited Cupertino once more within the spring of 1983 to point out his sketches to the group. However Apple finally needed to abandon its ambitions for Mr. Macintosh “due to the scarcity of ROM, disk space and development time.”
Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless an awesome tidbit of Mac historical past that additionally makes for extremely fascinating collectibles, such because the buttons that Apple made out of a few of Folon’s drawings and gave away at commerce exhibits, a Mac poster of his, or this once-auctioned letter displaying that he and Jobs remained pleasant.
Picture Credit: Digibarn Computer Museum
As you’ll be able to guess, these things are fairly uncommon, however chances are you’ll discover some comfort in digging by the hyperlinks and pictures. My private favourite: This authentic Mac Mac circuit board with Folon’s Mac Man emblazoned subsequent to its copyright discover.
