'Apple Cafe' from 1996 shows early work on branded retail presence
Designers of an "Apple Cafe," what may have been the predecessor to the Apple Store, have revealed in an interview about what could have been, just prior to Steve Jobs's return to the company.
The process began at some point in 1996, according to Landmark Entertainment Group founder Tony Christopher, when Apple was starting to look beyond the traditional computer retailer model and sales from department stores that existed at the time.
"They didn't know exactly what they wanted to do at first. I don't know if they had the idea for a cafe or that was something we came up with, " said Christopher to Co.Design in an interview focusing on the concept. "It was the world's first cybercafe. There wasn't a cybercafe at this time, and a lot of people who didn't have computers were looking for a way to go use them. Back in 1998, this was a radical idea!"
The designs for the cafe very much represent a future-view looking forward from roots in a neon-soaked late-'80s and early-'90s perspective. The sketches shown in the interview are reminiscent of an evolution of Apple's Performa advertising, and design language at the time.
"The interior design was very high tech, and we worked on it for about six months," said Christopher. "We understood that we were dealing with a computer, which was a future technology not a historic technology, and the Apple Cafe had to reflect that."
The "Apple Cafe" as envisioned had food service, paraphernalia retail, user support, and computer sales all rolled into a common gathering place.
"The whole thing went to Steve Jobs, and basically when he saw it, he liked it, but he put it on hold because he had this idea for an Apple Store," added Christopher. "It's interesting because this was not Apple as Apple is today. They were just a computer company. But they were interested in, again, making computers for everyone."
Five years after the possible birth of the concept, Apple's first retail store opened up at Tyson's Corner Mall, in McLean, Virginia on May 19, 2001, despite being numbered second, behind the Glendale Galleria store in California that opened a few hours later on the same day.
Apple's initial batch of stores are purely retail and support establishments, with small, if any, gathering spaces for presentations surviving remodels. More recent stores have central groves or wide-open spaces. None serve food, with only a few stocking any Apple paraphernalia such as pens or t-shirts anymore.
Images courtesy Landmark Entertainment Group.
The process began at some point in 1996, according to Landmark Entertainment Group founder Tony Christopher, when Apple was starting to look beyond the traditional computer retailer model and sales from department stores that existed at the time.
"They didn't know exactly what they wanted to do at first. I don't know if they had the idea for a cafe or that was something we came up with, " said Christopher to Co.Design in an interview focusing on the concept. "It was the world's first cybercafe. There wasn't a cybercafe at this time, and a lot of people who didn't have computers were looking for a way to go use them. Back in 1998, this was a radical idea!"
The designs for the cafe very much represent a future-view looking forward from roots in a neon-soaked late-'80s and early-'90s perspective. The sketches shown in the interview are reminiscent of an evolution of Apple's Performa advertising, and design language at the time.
"The interior design was very high tech, and we worked on it for about six months," said Christopher. "We understood that we were dealing with a computer, which was a future technology not a historic technology, and the Apple Cafe had to reflect that."
The "Apple Cafe" as envisioned had food service, paraphernalia retail, user support, and computer sales all rolled into a common gathering place.
"The whole thing went to Steve Jobs, and basically when he saw it, he liked it, but he put it on hold because he had this idea for an Apple Store," added Christopher. "It's interesting because this was not Apple as Apple is today. They were just a computer company. But they were interested in, again, making computers for everyone."
Five years after the possible birth of the concept, Apple's first retail store opened up at Tyson's Corner Mall, in McLean, Virginia on May 19, 2001, despite being numbered second, behind the Glendale Galleria store in California that opened a few hours later on the same day.
Apple's initial batch of stores are purely retail and support establishments, with small, if any, gathering spaces for presentations surviving remodels. More recent stores have central groves or wide-open spaces. None serve food, with only a few stocking any Apple paraphernalia such as pens or t-shirts anymore.
Comments
The circle of life.
It looks to me a bit like the Café 80s from Back to the Future Part II. That was a vision of how the future would see the past, while this is kind of the classic how the past saw the future, both filtered through the late 80s and early 90s.
[EDIT] Fixed italics.
A lot of people thought the Apple stores were not going be successful because Gateway stores were dying at the same time Apple was rumored to be looking into it.
The truth is Apple could have probably done anything in 2001 because its iPod's were selling like hotcakes (gotta love them hotcakes), and everyone WANTED them.
The rather unusual concept above would have failed in 1996 because Apple's products did not have the perceived value they have today. A 2001 Apple store in 1996 would have failed, too, with Apple's 1996 line up of Performas, Newtons, eMates, and other "junk".
Jobs cleaned house at Apple. It needed cleaning. Now they make billions on products the "Mac Forum internet Users" think suck (OMG, no headphone jack!). But someone must like them because they keep selling and making Apple money.
Performas of the mid '90s had more "firsts" in them than anything Apple has ever done since. Same with the PowerBooks.
"Junk"?? ...Please.
One can see in the third illustration, the abortive Apple "themes" that they had been playing with; the idea being that people could change the look of their UI to all sorts of Apple and third-party looks (including the Sponge Bob / Tinkertoy look seen in the menu bar, but Apple only demoed them, then offered just two: blue and graphite, ditching the wilder options before they hit the streets. Apple decided that the Mac OS must have a look that clearly identified the Mac as being different than a PC and not some random user-selectable look. This was also in the day of the Copland disaster. Apple really was in serious disarray.
As for the flashy clashing colors and overt techy look, innovative art back then was largely related to the advancement of Photoshop (along with KPT) and 3-D apps, with designers tending to go over the top. TechTool Pro (which is still around) had an interface featuring a metallic-sounding robot voice speaking prompts and with all sorts of visual depth to the UI. It would be laughable by today's standards, but people thought it was pretty cool in the day.
Seriously? There were oodles of electronic cafes back then. Sure, most of them were on ISDN or a frame relay if you were lucky.
I ran a higher-end one in Santa Fe that Apple visited during this time, in 1996. We had all Apple gear, network accounts, websites for each customer, CU-See Me, network gaming, classes, regular visits from Guy Kawasaki, Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Dave Mark, etc. Gee, I wonder where they got the idea?