Thanks for the memories Steve.

Just heard about the passing of Steve Jobs, and although I felt his time was probably short for a good while now, I have to say I actually got a wee bit emotional while watching a retrospective about him on TV. As an illustrator and designer for well over twenty years, I feel like I was right in the thick of the Apple revolution. Although, admittedly, I am not, by any means, an “early adopter” of the latest and greatest technology. I saved for a long time to purchase my “own” Mac computer. At the time, in the early 1990's, I spent well over 10 grand for a
Mac Quadra 950, and scanner, and printer. The fastest machine at the time. I don't get that attached to machines and things. However, the more I reflect over the heart of my life and career over the last 25 years, I get a glowing nostalgia thinking that most whatever I've done in that time has been supported by Apple products. Even in light of the fact, that in the mid nineties, while Apple was struggling, I unashamedly purchased a Mac clone. I can remember waiting for a flight to Europe in 1997. The cover of the glossy American news weekly in the waiting area was about Apple, being “rescued” by BIll Gates and Microsoft with a crucial influx of cash. The deal also, in my recollection, was that any legal matters involving the suit Apple had against Microsoft and their Windows operating system be dropped. That one hurt. I remembered the sound of the soft chime of the original MacIntosh I was fortunate enough to learn on, in the first office I shared with others in the late 80's. I winced to know, that the genius of the Macintosh OS was it's friendly, approachable, interface; (the easy to navigate “windows,” and the mouse; that made a non-computer designer an instant devotee. Now that I reflect, I realize that a machine, in a subtle way, had actually given a young designer a little hope that maybe, just maybe, he could make it on his own. Thanks, Steve.

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Side note: Funny, I recently had toyed with the idea of creating a caricature every week to post on my blog. Well, it seems to be apropos that Steve Jobs be the first.