A few months ago, Martin and I were in New York doing the final photo shoot for I Miss My Pencil with Nicolas Zurcher. One of our tasks for that week was to create photography for each of the 3 chapter title pages: aisthetika, punk manufacturing, love + fetish.
We dipped a teddy bear in black latex (love + fetish). We wrote graffiti on a brick wall with yarn (punk manufacturing). For aisthetika, we wanted to represent the idea that objects we see everyday can be part of a multi-sensorial experience…even if it’s unexpected or just plain weird.
We immediately called Andre Yousefi (our master prototyper) and the guys in the IDEO shop. They’re up for anything, and it was not at all hard to convince them to find an old Mac laptop and cut off one corner and ship it to us in the New York office. IT provided a broken laptop and Jim Feuhrer was at the band saw within minutes, and loving every minute of it. Then we had to glue all the bits back together to give it that perfect assembled look that we just sliced the corner off with a bread knife.
My first thought when I got the request to cut a corner off the MacBook was that it should be a bite or two, literally shaped like you would take a bite out of a sandwich. And this quick experiment could represent us, as designers, biting back at the technology that people are so enthralled with that they don’t realize it takes up so many hours in their life never to be recovered. — Jim Feuhrer
I can’t add too much to the story apart from the absolute joy of cutting the corner off and the look of astonishment on all parties around in the Shop at the time with that look on their face’s “WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU GUYS UP TO!” and “That’s cool…” when they find out that it’s something for the Pencil book. – Andre Yousefi
It is the little things, even the ridiculous ones, that keep us inspired and provoke new thought…and that’s what this book was all about.
I think a large part of the book was an exercise in playing with the absurd and there seemed at the time that chewing on a corner of a laptop was a celebration of that absurdity. Now that the whole thing’s done it seems perfectly normal, like we do it every day. Maybe that’s the great thing about experimentation, weirdness turns to normality and so you continue to push for more stranger avenues of expression to test the limits of good and bad. Plus it is fun to cut up an Apple, they are just as pretty on the inside. – Martin Bone
For more information on the book, I Miss My Pencil, visit http://www.imissmypencil.com
k0ev
03/11/2009 at 4:35 am // PermalinkWow! PowerBook for desert
William
03/11/2009 at 5:52 am // PermalinkI like the juxtaposition of senses this picture evokes. Make sure you chew slowly and keep your mind open.
Joel
03/11/2009 at 7:21 am // PermalinkEat different.
kc!
03/11/2009 at 8:06 am // PermalinkWonderful insight into your creative proceas! I look forward to reading the book!
Andrew MacDonald
03/11/2009 at 8:55 am // PermalinkCould you have not got a designer to actually create/photoshop the mac to make it look exactly like the finished result, thus saving you from spending out on a Macbook that you could never use again?
Either way, the finished result looks brilliant. Well done.
Dan
03/11/2009 at 9:28 am // PermalinkNow that’s thinking different, love it, just love it!
Craig
03/11/2009 at 9:57 am // PermalinkSo what sort of wine do you pair with a Macbook?
Katie
03/11/2009 at 10:16 am // PermalinkThat’s easy! Apple wine = http://tinyurl.com/y9p79yx
Pablo
03/11/2009 at 3:35 pm // PermalinkI cook my sanwiches with my apple laptop:)
its the I-toast…
http://www.pabloalbacete.com/index.php?/about-this-site/
cheers!
Robert Dempsey
03/11/2009 at 5:19 pm // PermalinkPure awesome.
elliot
03/11/2009 at 8:24 pm // Permalinkha funny, but they are missing salt and pepper… or maybe some home made pesto
Zidni
04/11/2009 at 5:39 am // PermalinkBeyoutiful on the inside!!
Brasileiro
04/11/2009 at 9:49 am // PermalinkVai trabalhar !!!
Русский
06/11/2009 at 12:10 pm // PermalinkУ всех тут такие эмоции,а мне жалко!!!
eric
10/11/2009 at 10:18 am // Permalinkyou are what you eat.
Gustavo Argento
10/11/2009 at 11:07 am // PermalinkCoincido con Brasileiro, anda a laburar, find a decent job!!!
Creo que son un monton de ricachones malgastando dinero.
Cuando las trescuartos de la poblacion mundial no tiene las
necesidades basicas cubiertas.
Gerrno
10/11/2009 at 11:38 am // PermalinkHey…like the idea, actually love it… for that last touch you should do it with the sauce (photoshop it or real photo, maybe the real photo would be better don’t know should try both) it would look surrealistic, because those hours spend are tasty!
Joshua Brinckerhoff
10/11/2009 at 2:11 pm // PermalinkBrilliant!
Jorge Inchaurregui
10/11/2009 at 2:43 pm // PermalinkA powerful image to be sure. I would like to see an Apple pie next.
Raymond
10/11/2009 at 6:00 pm // PermalinkIt’s not a MacBook. I can’t believe as designers they keep calling it a MB. It’s a Powerbook. There’s a difference.
I do like the idea behind it though.
Robert
11/11/2009 at 6:25 am // PermalinkI think I would have gone for white wine…
This is fun – even for an Apple fan such as myself. It’s much better than just photoshopping a MacBook and nice to see somebody crafting such a piece of work with their hands for a change.
Nicole
11/11/2009 at 12:08 pm // PermalinkWere you at all worried about the fumes from the cutting of the computer? How did it smell? I would have been worried about breathing in some nanomaterials.
David "Rooster" Claytor
12/11/2009 at 12:42 pm // PermalinkExcellent idea, very inspiring. Looks like it was a blast! Who wouldn’t want to band-saw a mac? Didn’t Hendrix burn his guitar?
Gaku
12/11/2009 at 4:19 pm // Permalinkyeah andre!
Tee
16/11/2009 at 3:27 am // Permalink…I hadn’t realised that computer use and pencil use were mutually exclusive. They aren’t mutually exclusive in my design world.
Andre Yousefi
04/12/2009 at 10:41 pm // PermalinkYeah back at you Gaku, hope all is well in LA. Stay tuned for more of this type of silliness from camp Andre, announcements to follow soon.
P.S. Those guys in the IDEO Shop are awesome, Oh the smell of making things!! “Get excited and make things”