Having used Apple‘s products through most of my professional career, I was saddened to hear of Steve Job’s passing on October 5, 2011. Reflecting on his legacy, along with the multitude of Apple media and computer products I’ve used in my life, I felt an urge to pay small homage to his design insight with the following photo.

This grouping includes the older beige products developed prior to Steve Jobs' return in 1996 through the translucent cases and more machine-crafted parts (center-left)

Steve Jobs was ousted from the company he co-founded in 1985. Upon his return in 1996 he steered product development coupled with a clean design ethic that turned Apple, Inc. into the chic brand we know today. You can see the evolution of his influence, and great examples of key projects including a blue-and-white G3 Power Mac (1999), and the Power Mac G4 Cube (2000) and four different iPods (Classic’02, Shuffle’06, Nano 3G’07, & Touch’08), along with the iPhone 4 and the original Mac Mini (2005). Note the initial migration away from beige boxes as seen from the dark grey PowerCD (1993) unit to the QuickTake 200 camera (1997) and the black Powerbook G3 laptops at the left side of the photo. These later gave way to extensive use of translucent plastics and colors, and finally machined aluminum and polished glass. (The keyboards and mice from each era also reflect this transition – four of which are shown here.)

Curiously, all of the devices shown here still operate flawlessly, though most are defunct by nature of their I/O connectivity and inability to run current software.

Product Names and Timeline of Apple Products Shown Above

After months of speculation by technology aficionados, Apple, Inc. is expected to announce the details of the iPhone 5 when Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple takes the stage on Tuesday, October 4th. The discussion has served as both the jewel and the bane of tech blogs and podcasts. Predictions, criticisms, and praise have been volleyed and the only sure thing at present time is that tomorrow’s media event will soon be followed by months of analysis and subjective observation as to whether or not the iPhone 5 is a successful product.

What most people fail to see, though, is that we already know more about the up-and-coming iPhone than we realize, if we just took a moment to understand that the majority of the tech writers are not asking themselves the right questions. They do not realize that the main reason the iPhone has been so successful to date is because Apple is a design-oriented organization and pushes itself forward through more of a holistic mentality. Instead of asking ourselves what we want the next iPhone to do, what specifications it should have, or what we want it to look like, we should simply ask ourselves “What does the iPhone want to be?” It is from this question that we can derive the future direction of the product line, because that’s the question that Apple likely uses to drive all future development of it’s products.

In my own humble, design-oriented prognostication exercise, here are a few key directions:

1. The iPhone wants to be UNIVERSAL. A cell phone is a useful tool, but only if it can be used wherever and however we want it. There are presently too many competing cellular standards out there, and I’m certain that Apple, Inc. would love to change that. The early days of railroads were plagued by the lack of standardized rail gauges and the present state of cellular communication is not much different. Apple has a vested interest in pushing for a more global standard in cellular service. The iPhone 4 was their first foray onto the Verizon network in the U.S., but to date it requires hardware that is not transferable to AT&T.

2. The iPhone wants to be SMALL. Cell phones are constantly with us, but they remain neither elegant nor convenient to carry and use. Their present form factor is either going to leave a bulge in our pockets, or get caught up in seat-belts if we strap it externally to our hip. The desire for a big, usable screen battles our requisite need to carry it around. The number one reason my wife feigns interest in owning an iPhone for herself is that until it’s available in a smaller form factor, she simply won’t want to tote it. In an era where LCD screens populate our living rooms, work spaces, automobiles, retail shops, and public spaces why do we need to carry more of them around? For those lucky enough to carry an iPad, do you still use your phone to watch movies, play games or go online? Probably not, since a larger screen in most cases equates to a better experience. Battery life to power these big screens has become a huge overhead in such a small device. Is it time that the interface begins to peel away from the flat, non-tactile glass that all smart phones sport these days?
photo credit: {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}

3. The iPhone wants to be USABLE. How many times have you missed a call because you couldn’t fish your phone out of a pocket or purse fast enough? How many times have you missed a message because the ring was too muffled from being stowed in your pocket or briefcase? Does this sound like good design for a device that is supposed to primarily serve as a telephone? Thankfully the implementation of Bluetooth connectivity has solved most of these challenges for me while driving — I never have to worry about which pocket my phone is in, or struggling to see the screen to dial out or answer an incoming call. Instead, this information is integrated into the environment around me as my radio mutes and the dashboard visually notifies me of the call details whenever I’m on the road. Shouldn’t this be the model for the rest of my user experience?

4. The iPhone wants to be INTEGRATED. Steve Jobs first publicly described Apple’s overall desktop strategy as a digital hub back in 2001. Much has changed since then, but the need for a unification of our communications is more imperative than ever. Our smartphones have become our window to the world. They video conference. They keep us up-to-date with social networks. They push our calendars to our co-workers. They identify the pieces of information that would otherwise hold up casual conversations around the world such as the name of an actor or lyrics to a song. They find the closest gas station. With continuing development of cloud-based services, it’s safe to declare that the digital hub will continue to push ever further into our lives, and that devices such as our cell phone will become more omnipresent than they already are.

5. The iPhone needs to be SECURE. It only takes one negative instance to turn your user experience into a distrustful one. Apple knows that and to date has taken its share of criticism for restricting its iOS environment so tightly. When cell phones are used as our digital wallet, the stakes are at their highest. Ongoing development of the iPhone platform will undoubtedly carry further security mandates to anchor its reputation as dependable in both the consumer and corporate economies.

So what will the next iPhone look like? The only thing we know for certain is that Tim Cook will be sporting a highly finessed device that is designed to integrate with all the rich media hardware that Apple has worked so hard to create. As a designer, I look forward to seeing what form factor that becomes.

If you haven’t heard of ISPO – The International Sports Business Network, it is one of the largest sports industry shows in the world.  Held in Munich it takes up 14 show halls in the new Munich Trade Fair Centre.  ISPO draws exhibitors and attendees from all corners of the sports and fitness industry; from action and traditional sport to home fitness and everything between.

Echelon Design had the opportunity to work with Bowflex in their efforts to launch a new international marketing plan.  Traditionally, Bowflex has been very successful in selling their machines through the use of infomercials here in the US.  Evidently, we (Americans) are the only people in the world to buy products that are sold on TV, Europeans would require the products to be placed in traditional “big box” retail stores and ISPO was the perfect platform for such an initiative.  Echelon was asked to design an environment that showcased the TreadClimber and Select Tech product lines that could be leveraged to generate key international partnerships with select “big box” retail stores.

ISPO was held February 6-9 and I would say that the results speak for themselves.  During those three days, Bowflex wrote immediate orders that put them at nearly 500% ROI (they did not expect to write orders at the show).  Needless to say, Bowflex has a great product line and a well known name; Echelon was thrilled to be a part of a fresh marketing and looks forward to helping extend that brand as they continue to break into the European market.

Below is an overall view of the design concept and a quick photo that was taken during setup.

We’re WAY overdue on these photo updates so I thought I’d share them quickly.  This is a 30′ x 50′ custom rental exhibit that we developed for one of our newest clients, Actega.  If you’re wondering what these guys do it’s simple — they develop and produce specialty coatings, sealants, printing inks, and adhesives for packaging and the graphic arts industry.

Our primary objective for the design was to create an open environment that provided several clean, large format areas that would support walk around product displays.  The result was a 12′ high back wall structure with the following:

• Graphics: full color graphic mural halo lit with blue gel fluorescent fixtures
• Custom LED light box kiosks with elliptical blue acrylic shelving for displaying a range of Actega’s rigid and flexible packaging solutions.
• Large circular hanging fabric sign for branding and ID
• LCD TV floor displays at each of the corner entrances for digital signage / video presentation.

Label Expo 2010 was a great show for us and our clients.  Echelon had four projects at the show – Actega, Mark Andy, CEI and Lederle/Print Products.  In the case of CEI and Lederle/Print Products both clients approached us after they had contracted split island booths, just so happened that they were splitting the island with each other.  They shared common needs out of their booth, like, show mandated solid back walls, areas for large branded graphics, lighting, conference areas, storage and as much floor space as possible.  Each design opportunity presents a group of challenges and sometimes we get to use those challenges to our advantage.  We were able to execute all of their outlined needs and propose an interesting solution for storage, a shared closet structure splitting the spaces.  Not only do they both have a 4′ x 10′ storage closet but by sharing a closet structure it cut the following cost in half – structure rental, material handling, shipping, and labor while providing excellent graphic areas and meets the show requirement of a solid back wall.

Sometimes its the small and creative ideas that helps exhibitors who are working with a fairly strict budget stay on target.  All four exhibitors have contracted for the next show, were very happy with their experience with Echelon and the activity at Label Expo 2010, doesnt hurt that all of their display machines were sold by day two!

CEI 20'x36"

Lederle-Print Products 20'x30'

If you had to come up with three words to describe the city of Amsterdam, what would they be?  I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the word “exhibition” made some lists although it might be used in the same context of the meaning of my blog today, which is of course, trade shows.

Sure we can go on forever talking about the social-political upsides to living in a city as liberal that of Amsterdam but the point today is that it is a great city for trade shows.  And it’s where I spent this past week installing a 6m x 6m stand for Entropic Communications, an Echelon client exhibiting at the International Broadcast Communications (IBC) show.

Our goal was to create an environment that facilitated connected home networking demonstrations and private meetings for Entropic’s leadership.  We utilized a combination of custom exhibit properties for meetings with a few rental components in order to create an environment that was had the look of a tech-driven company.

You can visit our web site to read a case study about Entropic’s custom exhibit program.

On the heels of the Fall closing of WSA 2010, comes news of Xsensible winning best exhibit for the under 800 square foot category. This 20′ x 20′ island exhibit was designed and built by Echelon Design specifically for both Spring and Fall WSA exhibitions.

Were you at WSA this year? Please share your photos and/or stories with us!

Below are just a few of the award winning photos of the Xsensible exhibit.

[Show as slideshow]

I recently had a chance to attend the worlds largest hospitality technology show, I had this opportunity thanks to two of Echelon’s newest clients Cetis, Inc. and Intelity who were exhibiting.  Cetis, Inc. is a leader in hospitality and enterprise phones, you can trace their roots back to 1983 (who doesnt love the 80′s).  Intelity is a fairly new technology company that gives guests of the hotel the capability to order any and all services offered by the property through the use of your iPad, iPhone and other devices.  Simply put, you can order room service, valet service, etc all with one touch on your favorite device.

The Cetis exhibit was a custom rental that we designed to be warm and inviting, a place that you might want to sit down and hang out in.  We accomplished this by including a raised conference/meeting area, using rich colors, large fabric identity sails, an architectural wall and a large product display area.

Intelity is also a custom rental, our goal was to attract attendees to the exhibit with the use large story board graphics and highly visible demo areas.  We provided a overhead hanging sign, a conference space on the interior, and six custom kiosks that were used for product demonstrations and provided excellent space for large graphic murals.

I enjoyed working with both teams and was pleased to hear great feedback about the show in general as attendance was up from the 2009 show.