Bauhaus and The Apple

Bauhaus is the school of design, architecture, and applied art founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius. Bauhaus effected a lot on nowadays design in various brands such as the Apple, IKEA, and Muji.

Our group focused on the Apple, the brand famous with its electric devices. The Apple and Bauhaus shares a lot of similarities. The founder of the Apple, Steve Jobs, had huge interest in design. Initial design of the Apple was heavy and had technical look like the old Sony's design. In 1981, Aspen Institute conference changed the future design of the Apple.

Steve Jobs inspired by Bauhaus after this conference and the religion, Zen buddhism also inspired him in design. Those two shares similar philosophy like "having as little distractions as possible." and "less is more." He also had huge interest in typography. In 1977, the logo designer, Rob Janoff designed for the Apple's first personal computer with an icon of real apple with a bite. This became the basis of the Apple's logo nowadays.

Jonathan Ive, a popular designer from the Apple, also influenced on philosophy of Bauhaus. His philosophy such as 'Keep the focus', 'Obsess about details', and 'Iterate and reduce,' share similar principles of Bauhaus like 'simplicity' and 'form follows functions.'

In 1978, the Apple uses slogans 'simplicity is the ultimate sophistication' for the advertisement for their apple computer II. This slogan also used in Bauhaus. The other slogan 'form follows emotion' also used for both of Bauhaus and the Apple. This tells that how the Apple loves the design and design philosophy of Bauhaus.

The Apple also used Bauhaus design principles into their products:

• 'Form follows function,' from Bauhaus made the basis of ipod which the Apple came up with clean design with good function.

• 'Staying true to the materials,' instead of putting a lot of decorations on the products, the Apple focused on showing their materials which made the product more clean and charming.

• 'Total work of an art,' made the Apple to focus on the whole package design rather than focus on the main product.

• 'Three standards primary colours,' the Apple also started with three main colours of white, gold, and silver on their products.

• 'Form and simplicity,' the Apple focused on minimalism design on their products by using small icons or adding as less as possible

Sources

 Apple’s design philosophy: Simple design, simple to operate. (2015, October 12). Storm Software Solutions.  
 https://www.stormsoftwaredevelopment.com/apples-design-philosophy-simple-design-simple-to-operate/

Cain, A. (2017, October 10). What Steve Jobs Learned from the Bauhaus. Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-steve-jobs-learned-bauhaus

Computer Images. (2019, May 1). Steve Jobs and the Bauhaus. https://www.computerimages.com/musings/steve-jobs-and-bauhaus.html

Eubanks, C. (2018, March 20). Apple & the bauhaus - Caleb Eubanks. Medium. https://medium.com/@2caleb/apple-the-bauhaus-19582c7d35d2

Fisovee. (2019, July 17). BRAND IDENTITY: THE APPLE WAY [Graph]. Fisovee. https://fisovee.wordpress.com/2019/07/17/brand-identity-the-apple-way/

How Apple’s Packaging gives buyers a sensory experience that strengthens the brand. (2017, August 3). [Photograph]. Swedbrand Group. https://www.swedbrand-group.com/blog/how-apples-packaging-gives-buyers-a-sensory-experience-that-strengthens-the-brand/

Isaacson, W. (2012, September). https://workbysimon.com/observatory/the-wisdom-of-steve-jobs/. Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-steve-jobs-love-of-simplicity-fueled-a-design-revolution-23868877/

Janoff, R. (1977). It all started with a fruit [Logo]. Rob Janoff. https://robjanoff.com/applelogo/

Kommentar, H. (2015, August 29). APPLE AND BAUHAUS. Bauhaus Movement. https://bauhausmovement.wordpress.com/tag/apple/

LaBarre, S. (2020, March 5). The untold origins of Apple’s groundbreaking design. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90472162/the-untold-origins-of-apples-groundbreaking-design

Nikolic, V. (2019). Apple [Online Image]. Https://En.99designs.de/Blog/Design-History-Movements/Famous-Logos-Bauhaus-Style/. https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/bauhaus-anniversary-brand-redesign/

Observatory. (2012, March 8). The Wisdom of Steve Jobs. Work/By/Simon. https://workbysimon.com/observatory/the-wisdom-of-steve-jobs/ 

[Online Image]. (2015, May 8). Medium. 
https://medium.com/@2caleb/apple-the-bauhaus-19582c7d35d2

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. (1978, May 5). [Poster]. https://images.computerhistory.org/brochures/apple.ii.1977.102637933.jpg?w=400

Success Principles of Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Former Innovation Guru. (n.d.). Get2Growth. https://get2growth.com/jonathan-ive-success-principles/

Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (2016). Braun Portable Record Player, 1959 [Photograph]. Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/artwork/dieter-rams-braun-portable-record-player

Walker, R. (2017, June 19). Apple Cuts the Cord. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/apple-cuts-the-cord

Warren, B., & Warren, B. (2016, January 23). Apple Design Aesthetic. Aesthetics of Design. https://www.aesdes.org/2016/01/19/apple-design-aesthetic/