WWDC attendees greeted with jackets featuring Apple Watch San Francisco font, Swift code
Attendees registering for Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference are being given a familiar jacket with a new flourish: text set in the company's new internally created San Francisco font, along with a clever reference to Apple's recently released Swift language.
The windbreaker-style swag jacket lacks an Apple logo, instead simply stating "WWDC 2015" on the front with a large "15" on the back, nearly identical to the jackets Apple gave attendees last year.
There are a couple differences, principally the use of the San Francisco font that alludes to the company's new Apple Watch, which promises to get prime developer attention at the week-long conference.
Apple's WWDC 2015 jacket sports its new San Francisco font
It's likely that Apple's new iOS 9 and the next 10.11 version of OS X will also adopt the new font as their system default, providing a freshened appearance that harmonizes the overall appearance of the company's platforms.
While similar in style to the fog-resistant polyester-spandex jackets from WWDC 2014, this year's jackets also sport invisible zippers for their front pockets (as opposed to the open pockets last year).
While the fleece-lined, albeit lightweight, jacket might seem out of season in California in the month of June, San Francisco is infamous for its June Gloom, where days may be sunny but as soon as the sun goes down the fog rolls in and temperatures can plunge below their lowest point from the calendar's winter.
In another coy reference to its technology, Apple has outfitted its jackets with a garment tag that designates its size and comments that it was "Made in the USA" using code written in Swift, the new programing language introduced at last year's event.
Nerd humor: the tag is Swift code
The tag reads: 'let jacketSize = "Medium"' and "// Made in the USA," following Swift's conventions for assigning variables and adding code comments, in numbered lines and color coded text familiar to Apple's Xcode developers.
A few attendees are already lined up outside the Moscone West convention center, ready to sleep on the sidewalk tonight in order to be among the first to grab seats. Registration staff noted that Keynote attendees should be able to get a good seat if they're "in line by 5 am," but added that this year Apple will make sure everyone in attendance will get a seat.
Those not at the conference will be able to watch the WWDC Keynote via a live feed starting at 10 AM PST, via the web or Apple TV.
The windbreaker-style swag jacket lacks an Apple logo, instead simply stating "WWDC 2015" on the front with a large "15" on the back, nearly identical to the jackets Apple gave attendees last year.
There are a couple differences, principally the use of the San Francisco font that alludes to the company's new Apple Watch, which promises to get prime developer attention at the week-long conference.
Apple's WWDC 2015 jacket sports its new San Francisco font
It's likely that Apple's new iOS 9 and the next 10.11 version of OS X will also adopt the new font as their system default, providing a freshened appearance that harmonizes the overall appearance of the company's platforms.
While similar in style to the fog-resistant polyester-spandex jackets from WWDC 2014, this year's jackets also sport invisible zippers for their front pockets (as opposed to the open pockets last year).
While the fleece-lined, albeit lightweight, jacket might seem out of season in California in the month of June, San Francisco is infamous for its June Gloom, where days may be sunny but as soon as the sun goes down the fog rolls in and temperatures can plunge below their lowest point from the calendar's winter.
In another coy reference to its technology, Apple has outfitted its jackets with a garment tag that designates its size and comments that it was "Made in the USA" using code written in Swift, the new programing language introduced at last year's event.
Nerd humor: the tag is Swift code
The tag reads: 'let jacketSize = "Medium"' and "// Made in the USA," following Swift's conventions for assigning variables and adding code comments, in numbered lines and color coded text familiar to Apple's Xcode developers.
A few attendees are already lined up outside the Moscone West convention center, ready to sleep on the sidewalk tonight in order to be among the first to grab seats. Registration staff noted that Keynote attendees should be able to get a good seat if they're "in line by 5 am," but added that this year Apple will make sure everyone in attendance will get a seat.
Those not at the conference will be able to watch the WWDC Keynote via a live feed starting at 10 AM PST, via the web or Apple TV.
Comments
Strikes me that this could suggest a San Francisco connection for OS X name - maybe " Golden Gate"? The "epicenter" thing is of course associated with earthquakes and thus 1906? Whatever...
OS X San Andreas?
Back when Macs had low res screens, some people complained that their use of paper fonts instead of screen-optimized fonts resulted in blurrier text than Windows. Then along came the HiDPI displays and it didn't matter any more. And so *now* we get a screen-optimized font, lol.
I really don't care for the San Francisco font as a designer.
Sure, it MAY help the watch be more readable, but it adds nothiing to the phone, tablet. or computer. And it doesn't look as nice as Apple's variant of Helvetica Neue.
I guess they feel the need to shake things up when too many deisgners copy them.
THe connections are cool.
I really don't care for the San Francisco font as a designer.
Sure, it MAY help the watch be mroe readable, but it adds nothiing to the phone, tablet. or computer. And it doesn't look as nice as Apple's variant of Helvetica Neue.
The utility of the font is certainly debatable, but stating a personal preference of appearance as fact has always been a pet peeve of mine. It doesn't look as nice to you, but that doesn't mean someone else doesn't think it's the most beautiful font in the world. We still don't know for sure what will happen with it until tomorrow. Perhaps they are switching over to this font as their new "corporate" font for everything, maybe they are just highlighting it because of the Watch momentum, who knows?
Agreed. I immediately roll my eyes whenever somebody touts the "as a designer" line. It's akin to saying "My mom says..."
Does no other language use "let" in that context? Just curious.
No other language for Mac, iOS and :apple: Watch development.
(how do you insert an Apple logo into these comments without using the Mac-specific character code?)
I disagree. There are a number of usability problems that arise from the use of Helvetica Neue. Principally, the font is simply too insubstantial to offer much visual salience when used in contexts where figure and ground coloration is at all similar. In other words, in many real world use contexts, it's simply very hard to read.
I'm glad that Apple addressed this issue because it will improve the user experience of their devices.
Does no other language use "let" in that context? Just curious.
BASIC has a "Let" statement IIRC.
Agreed. I immediately roll my eyes whenever somebody touts the "as a designer" line. It's akin to saying "My mom says..."
Makes me think of "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" in commercials.
I guess nobody does that any more.
Agreed. I immediately roll my eyes whenever somebody touts the "as a designer" line. It's akin to saying "My mom says..."
Perhaps he's a graphic designer for print. That could explain his love for Helvetica. Anyway, he also gave a valid reason why Apple will change the font: "too many designers copy them".
Personally, I'm not a fan of Helvetica Neue and think it's out of place as an OS font but can understand why some people prefer it over the new San Francisco.
I guess we will agree to disagree.
On a watch, I can see it difficult to read.
On the phone, no.
On the iPad, no.
On the Mac, no.
Especially with the Retina display making text look sharper than a printed page.
I think HN is a great balance of reaadability and style and it keeps the UI from having a heavy feel.
The SF font looks more Urban and has a hevier feel to it, whereas HN looks classier and more "high end."
If readability was the only issue, we would be seeing text in Healvetica Bold.
But that would look very "crayola."
HN is elegant. SF is more grunge. But perhaps that is what they are going for.
It just seems to lack any character whatsoever.
On the plus side, it is more "even" than most fonts, while retaining a humanist feel. It is spaced evenly and you can pretty much contain each letter in a perfect square.
But it just doesn't "look" all that attractive.
And whether we admit it or not, attractiveness is important in a UI.