Language⇒Japanese

My appleII Notes-7

My AppleII Notes-7

99/8/08　An Apple Design on the Outer Box

The design of the outer box reflects its age, era background, and the progress of the packaging technology of personal computers. This is all very interesting to me. I tried to classify what I had at hand into four categories by age.

CATEGORY-1（1977〜1982）

1979 BELL & HOWELL APPLE II PLUS 1979 SILENTYPE / GRAPHIC TABLET 1978 DISK II In these models, the apple logo is printed in red lettering on thick light gray cardboard. All have a common design; the Bell & Howell outer box above is the same as that of the Apple II Plus box. The only difference is that the black stamp "B & H, 48 K" is faded. By looking at the outer box, it is possible to determine whether the machine is loaded with 16K, 32K, or 48K of memory. Since the Silentype and Disk II had models both with and without controller cards, these also have two types of model numbers printed on the outer box; the number of the model is checked with a magic marker. It shows that manual assembly and inspection were carried out by a person; this is evident by the handwriting. The outer box of the graphic tablet is what I borrowed from my friend Mr. Hoshi. In any box, the cushioning material is composed of cardboard and sponge, which are relatively large. ugated cardboard is solid, and I wonder whether it was affected by the two oil crises of 1973 and 1979 or not. Nevertheless this packaging is suitable for precision equipment, even though it looks relatively simple. Founded in April 1976, Apple Computer Inc. had problems with the Apple III in 1980 which was a failure, along with the encroaching pursuit of the IBM Personal Computer, launched in April 1981. Apple was still in good shape scooping sales revenue of 1 billion dollars at the end of 1982.  ( Refer to Bell Ando Howell Apple II Plus)

CATEGORY-2（1983〜1984）

1983 APPLE IIE（UNENHANCED） 1983 HAND CONTROLLER II 1983 IMAGEWRITER 1984 MACINTOSH In this period, the box becomes cardboard with slight whitening, and the lettering of the outer box is mainly gray. The logo "The Personal Computer" is printed in the box of the Apple IIe and on the Hand Controller II, and we can see that Apple are conscious of their rival the IBM Personal Computer. In addition to conventional cardboard and sponge, polystyrene is beginning to be used as a cushioning material. The above picture is of a package that I borrowed from my friend Mr. Yoshiya Harada. It is an Apple IIe’s packaging that he has been cherishing for many years. On the outer box, model number A2S2064 in printed, which shows that this box belongs to the Apple IIe 64K model. Below are an Imagewriter that was released in December 1983 and a Macintosh that was released in January 1984. On the box of the Macintosh, a somewhat familiar logo which was designed by Tom Hughes and John Cassard, who were directors of art at that time, along with a picture of a Macintosh, is boldly printed, but the traditional Apple logo is not to be found. Macintosh packages are superb in design and for small items each is designed especially. It may be more appropriate to have them featured in a category separate to this one. Also, the Apple IIc's packaging released in April 1984 uses high quality paper with full-color printing. During this transitional period, we can get a feel for the creativity and work that went into the design of each product’s outer box. Petroleum prices recorded a peak of $ 36.9 per barrel in 1981, but at around 1983 it stabled somewhat. As for materials, such as corrugated cardboard and polystyrene, in terms of price and quality, it seems that the designer's range of choice was expanding. Apple Computer released Apple IIe and Lisa in January 1983. John Sculley joined in April, and he was appointed CEO. In June, Apple II sales totaled 1 million units. The Macintosh was released in January 1984, and the Apple IIc was released in April. In November the total sales volume of Apple II had reached 2 million units.

CATEGORY-3（1985〜1986）

1985 APPLE IIE（ENHANCED） 1985 IMAGEWRITER II 1985 HAND CONTROLLER IIe In 1985, Apple Computer's logo type also changed from "apple" to "Apple", and the font is changed from a short and thick kind of typeface to a somewhat tall and smart one. In this period, fine white cardboard is used, the product photo is printed on the box, and a large Apple logo inserted. It is bright and luxurious. The package design of the IIc, which was an innovative red color disappeared after about a year and was replaced by white. This meant the logotype changed, disk labels and manuals changed, in fact the whole range changed to this new design based on white. During this period, the structure of Apple was going through the era of Steve Jobs and Sculley's Dynamic Duo, with it being consolidated by Sculley. This internal change probably explains the choice in design preferences. In this period, it is thought that the price of oil has stabilized worldwide, and the supply of fine corrugated cardboard became relatively easy to access, thus the design of the outer box became bright and luxurious. Meanwhile, as the diversified product line increased Apple inventory this added pressure financially, thus it seems that the company headed in a direction of rationalization by standardization with respect to the design of the outer box. Peripherals such as the HD - 20 released in 1985, the main body of Apple IIGS released in September 1986, color monitors etc. are all supplied in boxes of this design category.

CATEGORY-4（1987〜　）

1987 Platinum Apple IIe

In the latter half of the 1980s, the global environmental problem will be taken up as a major international issue following the Toronto Summit in 1988. Through these meetings, industrial sectors are required to improve energy utilization efficiency and protect forests. The picture below is of the Apple IIe Platinum Model which was released in January 1987. This product is around 1993. Whether or not this box was used since the release in 1987 is unconfirmed, but on the Macintosh line, if my memory is correct, this type of box had been used since the release of the 1992 Macintosh Duo.

Using recycled paper, large recycling marks are also printed on the boxes.