We are unabashed fans of Apple. We love their computers, and we love their design. It’s the best kind of inspiration; the kind we get to interact with every single day. As new people have joined the office, new computers have come on board as well. And you know we keep the packaging.

One day last week we were looking at the stack of Apple boxes, and realized that it tells the story of this whole company. And there, at the bottom, is the foundation of it all: the Power Mac G4 and Studio Display that Rob first worked on. It’s a workhorse that is still part of the office!

Most people want to be innovative, unique, interesting (main-stream is so not cool). But, how can it be more than just a statement and actually help you?; help you succeed, help you communicate and help you stay fresh? Creativity has to have a purpose. There must be a concept, an end-goal that matters. Jonathan Ive said it so well when he defined design as a process of “stripping away” what is not needed, a simplifying of content and the display of information. It’s not, then, so much about thinking up something cool as it is thinking of the best way to solve a problem to communicate a specific idea. Not to reveal a bias or anything, but someone asked Apple CEO Steve Jobs how they ended up creating the ipod as such a hip device. Jobs replied that  creating a cool device was never the intent, only something that would be simple and easy to use, and that’s cool! Because there is so much “creativity” in culture today, stating the obvious is a refreshing alternative. So creatively simplify your content (whether written or visual). Your audience will thank you.