Apple puts out $300 design book


Titled Designed by Apple in California, the new art book chronicles 20 years of Apple design starting with Steve Jobs' return to the company. The book itself is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.

Designed by Apple in California's forward by Jony Ive:

While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the creative process, or product development. It is an objective representation of our work that, ironically, describes who we are. It describes how we work, our values, our preoccupations, and our goals. We have always hoped to be defined by what we do rather than by what we say.

We strive, with varying degrees of success, to define objects that appear effortless. Objects that appear so simple, coherent, and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative.


Like many of its products, there are two versions of the book. A small 10.20-inch x 12.75-inch size and large 13-inch x 16.25-inch size that sells for $199 and $299, respectively.

At that price, the book appears geared more towards design and art fans than every-day Apple customers, although certainly, Apple's biggest fans likely will shell out the cash. The book will be available online and at select flagship retail stores, where it will also be on display.

Apple appeared to go all out in this monument to itself. The book is described as "printed on specially milled, custom-dyed paper with gilded matte silver edges, using eight color separations and low-ghost ink. This linen-bound, hardcover volume was developed over an eight-year period."

On one hand, I get they want to do something really special that will be appreciated by their design peers, but it comes across as an elitist effort. Like the $18,000 gold Apple Watch, Designed by Apple in California is hardly something for the rest of us, which is where the Mac started.