The Snow White design language is an industrial design language which was developed by Hartmut Esslinger's Frog Design. Used by Apple Computer from 1984 to 1990, the scheme has vertical and horizontal s 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.
History
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. 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. Beginning in 1990, the Apple Industrial Design Group gradually altered and phased out the use of the Snow White language.
Design features
The distinguishing characteristics originated by the Snow White design language, in contrast to the original Apple industrial design style, include the following:
zero-draft enclosures, with no variances in case thickness and perpendicular walls
recessed international port identification icons
silk-screened product name badging
shallow horizontal and vertical lines, 2 mm wide, 2 mm deep, spaced 10 mm apart on center, which run along any and all of the surfaces of the product, some of which act as vents and set back 30 mm from the front and 4 mm from the back
Fog products have beige accents and cables, Platinum products have uniform color and Smoke gray cables
3 mm radius, rear and 2 mm radius, front corners
simple unadorned ports and slots
Any or all of these features indicate a Snow White Frog Design influence over an otherwise Apple-designed product. In particular the first official implementation, the Apple IIc, does not represent the complete set of design elements, while the Macintosh II includes all of them. Later, the Macintosh LC began to phase out some of the design elements.
Most Apple Displays introduced between 1984 and 1994 also used Snow White, except those specifically designed to match the Apple II series. All Apple ADB keyboards and mice introduced between 1986 and 1993 were Snow White designs.
Unofficial designs
The Lisa 2/Macintosh XL had Snow White stripes added to the front bezel redesign along with the inlaid Apple badging four months before the Apple IIc was introduced, technically making it the first Snow White product.
The Apple Modem 300/1200 was updated from Apple beige to Fog and the inlaid Apple badging was added.
The Macintosh Plus was updated by Frog Design, but only added the inlaid Apple badging and recessed connector icons.
The Macintosh 800K External Drive only included the inlaid Apple badging and simple floppy disk slot styling as well as the 2 and 3 mm radius corners and zero-draft enclosure.
The Macintosh IIcx was designed in-house entirely by Apple and, though drawing upon the Snow White corporate language, departed considerably from the guidelines. This was the beginning of Apple's efforts to break ties with Frog Design and rebuild the Industrial Design Group.
The Macintosh IIci basically the same case as the IIcx with different internal hardware.
Both the 100- and 200-series PowerBooks and accessories were intended to tie into the rest of the Apple desktop products using the corporate Snow White design language. However, the light colors and decorative recessed lines did not seem appropriate for the scaled-down designs. In addition to adopting the darker grey color scheme which co-ordinated with the official corporate look, they also adopted a raised series of ridges mimicking the indented lines on the desktops. These early PowerBooks would be the last to use the aging Snow White look and the only ones to make such a radical adaptation of it.
