Snow White design language

The Snow White design language was an industrial design language developed by Hartmut Esslinger's Frog Design. Used by Apple Computer from 1984 to 1990, the scheme has vertical and horizontal for decoration, ventilation, and the illusion that the computer enclosure is smaller than it actually is.

The design language boosted Apple’s global reputation, set design trends for the computer industry, and molded the perception of computers in the manufacturing and business world.

Among other design features, Esslinger's presentation of the Apple logo—a three-dimensional logo inlaid into the product case with the product name printed onto its surface—was included on nearly every product for several years.

In 1982, Apple officials looked outside the company and indeed the country for a designer who could help them establish the firm as a world-class company.

Snow White refers to the seven projects code-named after the Seven Dwarves on which the new design language was to be applied. Several designers were courted by Apple under the Snow White project to see what they would come up with for the seven products (of which there were actually eight). The winner ultimately was Esslinger and the resulting style assumed the project’s code name.

The Apple IIc computer, and its peripherals, were the first Snow White design.

Initially, Snow White debuted in a creamy off-white color known at Apple as "Fog" but later other products moved to the warm gray "Platinum" color, lighter than the previous Apple "Putty" color, used throughout the Apple product line from 1987 on. Esslinger favored a bright-white color originally for the IIc, but Jerry Manock successfully argued that it would attract fingerprints. Nevertheless, Esslinger detested the original Apple beige-color and insisted all Snow White-styled products use the same off-white color as the IIc. Until the change to Platinum, no Snow White designs appeared in any other color, except for the Hard Disk 20SC in order to better match the beige color of the Macintosh Plus beneath which it was designed to sit.

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