2006 / December 6th/ Spotting a fake: “New apple design”
I spend far too much time on digg wasting my time, so my eyes sharpened when I saw this new apple.com design… or supposedly, at least. Let’s take a quick step-by-step at why this design is clearly a fake. Apple’s an easy candidate because their brand is so strictly controlled on apple.com: every detail is executed to precision.
The so-called redesign
Problem #1: Design width
So, here we have a Apple Pro/Product site that’s only 650 (!!) pixels wide? I don’t think so, buddy. All of Apple’s design movements have been towards wider sites, especially for their Pro & Product pages. Just check out a few: Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, Aperture and Final Cut Studio. The likelihood that they would suddenly rein in their designs to a smaller width is ludicrous.
Problem #2: Wrong Myriad
This one is pretty glaring. This is not Apple Myriad. It’s a terrible attempt, novice to say the least.
Problem #3: No Lucida Grande
Are you kidding me? This design has aliased Arial as the main text. Macs anti-alias text (such as “Search Apple.com), and there sure as hell ain’t no Arial on Apple.com.
Problem #4: Arrows
Not only did this designer introduce some completely new arrows, but they’ve made them a prominent part of the design. Go ahead and browse Apple.com for a while, you’ll see these approved arrows all over the place. They’re the same ones you see in iTunes, and the same ones you see everywhere. Don’t go putting in horrid new little arrows.
And don’t get me started on the breathing room for that text inside the buttons.
Problem #5: iTunes, not ITunes.
This one’s a massively novice mistake as well. It’s iPod+iTunes The capitalization is something that lives on throughout the Apple brand ever since the iMac. I’m sorry, but no way this would get past any half competent Art Director.
In retrospect
This comp is a great example and what happens when you don’t take the brand into account when designing. There’s a lot more to design than pretty colors and fancy gradients.
Live the brand. Breathe the brand. Design the brand.
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December 6th | #
I’m surprised that piece of crap made it to the homepage of digg. I was the first to comment on it. Seeing how many digg’s the post got in such a short amount of time worries me. It wasn’t even remotely accurate.
Nice assessment btw.
December 6th | #
wow, i didnt notice that
thanks bro im glad i didnt digg that story
December 6th | #
Layin’ the design smack-down. ;)
December 7th | #
Dugg
http://digg.com/design/SpottingafakeNewapple_design
;)
December 7th | #
dude please, it was a test to show that I can produce glossy buttons and 2.0 design, it took me 2 days to finish it off. if you take a look on the rest of the page you’ll notice that I focus on stuff that are pretty analog and creative instead of plastic shiny shitstuff..
get a life man, and stop acting like a design-god.
Live your mom. Breathe your mom. Design your mom.
do it better yourself
December 7th | #
“Seeing how many digg’s the post got in such a short amount of time worries me.”
Alas a lof of people digg stuff before they’ve read the article, or even without reading the article at all.
December 7th | #
Dude your a fucking loser, get a life nerdboy. I bet you still play with G.I. Joes.
December 7th | #
I just looked at the CSS on apple.com and they use arial.
December 7th | #
3 Search Apple/Locate Store actually uses Verdana (which is probably a worse mistake).
December 7th | #
I would also add the the black ‘glassy’ gradient used at the top (and on some of the buttons) is the one taken from (shock) the Windows Vista taskbar or the Zune theme for Windows XP…
December 7th | #
oh yes, a brands most basicl visual astetics is surley in the way arrows look, and should never ever be changed if there is a redesign.
wait. RE-design? doesnt that imply changing stuff around.
December 7th | #
Chris, Period, Desu … Come on guys, if you think this isnt newsworthy, why are you here?
Thanks for the time it took you to point this out to us! :D
December 7th | #
[...] Spotting a fake: “New apple design†- Warpspire [...]
December 7th | #
You spent all that brain power picking the thing apart and none on trying to determine what was going on… Click the link and you find it goes to a designer. This is nothing more than part of a designer’s self appointed projects so he can have something to show in a portfolio. It is nowhere explained as a new design for the website. I would have thought the “Lorem Ipsum” would have made that clear as well as the fact that it was a single graphic link.
I’ll give you credit, you did a good job picking it apart. But a little research next time might save you the time it took to make this post.
December 7th | #
Most people that dugg the story (including me) knew that this was a fake. However, it is a good attempt by a novice. It looks nice and clean. It doesn’t live up to Apple standards, but it does do a great job of “slicking up” the current Apple design a little. It was a great try.
December 7th | #
Not to “period”: They don’t ‘use’ Arial douche bag, but it’s in the code in case you don’t have the proper font on your piece of shit PC.
Just FYI Warpspire - in your write up you said “iTunes+iPod” which of course Apple would also never say/write. It’s iPod+iTunes.
December 7th | #
Nice way of critisism, and you seem to have covered al the aspects.
Pitty how digg seems to become more and more of a noob-wanabee hang out for people who have just way to much time. Luckely for others there are still some really decent submisions comming in, to bad it only like 1 decent out of 200 unnecessairy/old messages.
Sorry for the bad englsih ;)
Greetings from Belgium
December 7th | #
You are all nerds. Nerds for making a fan design, nerds for picking apart a fan design. Nerds.
December 7th | #
I though it was a pretty good attempt.
December 7th | #
Ah, I’m glad you picked up on that and actually did an entry on it. How that thing made the frontpage of Digg is well beyond me. That’s not to say that the design doesn’t have some good things going for it, but it sure as hell has never been, nor will it be, apple.com.
And yes Chad, we are. Badge-bearingly so.
December 7th | #
Desu
If you need some graphic design work, please contact us…. esconsult1@gmail.com
December 7th | #
I cry for all you poeple who actually get offended by things that are not apple designed or apple approved.
Clearly in your apple-biggot minds, anything that is NOT created or approved by apple is total crap.
Do you all go to the apple church and pray to the apple god?
If Steve Jobs jumped off a cliff (and I hope he does soon!) and said it was the “apple way” you biggots would all follow him.
Apple products are the same exact crap as everyone else’s except with a little apple logo and a much higher pricetag.
…GET A LIFE PEOPLE!…
December 7th | #
Actually this guy really does some great work. Anyone checked out his site? http://www.desudesu.com
December 7th | #
props dude… Pretty weak it made the front page. Nice write up.
December 7th | #
Um, it’s not even intended to be a fake. It’s an intentional stab at a redesign as an exercise some dude did for fantasy creative, as part of a job application.
http://www.desudesu.com/
December 7th | #
I just can`t comprehend why you bothered describing all of this, the author himself said that it was just a test.
If ya don
t have anything worth saying, dont say anything at all. It better this wayDecember 7th | #
God damn you’re a whingey little bitch. Get a life, dude.
December 7th | #
i do say good sir… balls
December 7th | #
This designer does have skills, you can tell by looking at his other work. Attempting to modify the Apple brand is an invitation to the apple army to come out and dissect your work. The reason this got the the front of digg was that the apple army will blindly digg anything with mac or apple in the title, much like a “geek top 10 list”. Perhaps blaming the blind diggers would be more productive than ripping on this design.
December 7th | #
i was gonna chime in, but realized none of this is worth it. so, instead i offer you this important piece of information:
I LIKE PEANUT BUTTER ON MY HANDBURGERS.
December 7th | #
There isn’t such a font as “Apple Myriad”. It’s a font by Adobe.
The designer used Adobe Myriad Pro Semibold I believe, as Apple does. The only change he made is to reduce the kerning. That’s right, Apple doesn’t do that.
The biggest problem is probably the lack of Lucida Grande, along with the fact that the text is way too small.
Then, there is the rainbow underneath the Apple logo. I don’t think that Apple would do that.
Good catch for “iTunes” and “iPod”.
December 7th | #
Desu (& Supporters),
You posted a screenshot with the headline “New Apple.com Site?” Let’s just all agree that you wanted to start some sh*t, mmm-kay? Did you honestly think your design wouldn’t be revealed as a fake?
It’s very pretty, and honestly, my first reaction was “Holy crap that’s slick!”. But it’s not on brand, which would never get past any level of approval. If you spend any time in the industry, you should know what it’s like to have a brilliant design ripped apart by the Brand Nazis.
Now that isn’t to say what you did isn’t great. It is nice. But don’t try to pass it off as a “possible new design” if it wouldn’t even get through the first draft because of GLARING brand issues, all of which have exposed you.
You got pwned by Graphic Design. Live with it.
December 7th | #
Man, a bunch of people woke up with their panties hoisted so far up their rear they can taste em in their mouth.
Someone made a FALSE claim about this design being the new Apple.com. It’s going to spark a debate. Call us geeks, call us nerds, whatever.
This was a good assessment and all of the asshats need to stop hating on Kyle’s post.
December 7th | #
Who gives a flying fuck how Apple designs their webpages? Except obsessive nerds.
Enjoy your boring life.
December 7th | #
Actually, that’s wrong. Myriad Pro has rounded punctuations. The above font has squared punctuations.
December 7th | #
Gotta say, this has to have been the most pointless blog entry I’ve read all day. Especially given the effort which went into dissecting this design. The tone was completely unnecessary and can only assume that it was meant to be tongue in cheek - if so, it was slightly too subtle for the internets.
So, if this is the most pointless blog entry I’ve read all day… this must also be the most pointless reply I’ve written all day :-D
December 7th | #
thatguy… what’s a “handburger” ?
December 7th | #
nobody cares.
December 7th | #
If you’re going to pick someone else’s work apart, you’d better make sure that your shit is beyond reproach.
Let’s see:
“I spend far too much time on digg wasting my time, so my eyes sharped when I saw this new apple.com design… or supposedly, at least. Let’s take a quick step-by-step at why this design is clearly a fake. Apple’s an easy candidate because their brand is so strictly controlled on apple.com. Every detail is executed to precision.”
Problem #1:
Nice repetition of the word “time” there — twice in six words.
Problem #2:
Your eyes “sharped”? What the fuck does that mean?
Problem #3:
“Let’s take a quick step-by-step at why …” — a quick step-by-step what?
“The likelihood that they would suddenly reign in their designs to a smaller width is ludicrous.”
Problem #4:
I believe the verb you’re looking for is “rein”.
“This comp is a great example and what happens when you don’t take the brand into account when designing.”
Problem #5:
The above should read: “This comp is a great example OF what happens …”
I could go on, but I’m tired, so here are a few tips:
Don’t paint yourself as the digg/design messiah, here to save the masses who YOU believe are ignorant enough to think they are actually viewing an Apple Web site redesign.
Basically, you’re just a semi-literate opportunist who jumped at the chance to get your blog on digg. It worked: you must feel great.
December 7th | #
stuck up ahole
December 7th | #
Guys… this is amazing. It’s a total waste of time. I sent the story to digg coz I think it was a cool rumor, just that.
So, that makes me a fake-mockup promoter or something?
That mockup turn the artist (Desmond from Lost), a guy who doesn’t understand Apple’s principles and design alignments?
“Spotting a fake” <— Sounds epic, but as I said, it’s not the big deal… no offense.
December 7th | #
Um, Heal T. Physician? (And, may I say, I always admire those who take out their venom with divisive vigor using their real names. Gutsy.)
As far as designers critiquing other designers, I get it. I think it’s healthy. Helps the craft. And copywriters/editors critiquing other copywriters/editors, I get, as well. Again, heightens the art.
But a few typos–maybe even some grammar mistakes–does not classify one as “semi-literate,” lest that term apply to you (and me), as well.
Physician, get some sleep.
December 7th | #
Thanks for all the comments guys, it totally gave me the laugh I needed to get up this morning :)
December 7th | #
WOW! Great job, you spotted a “fake” that was an admitted fake! Excellent intuitive skills.
December 7th | #
Eagle’s eye you have ;)
Have a good one sir !
December 7th | #
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but the guy who created that never purported that it was an actual redesign Apple did for their page. He just did it to practice design. It’s right on his website: http://www.desudesu.com/
December 7th | #
[...] I spend far too much time on digg wasting my time, so my eyes sharped when I saw this new apple.com design … or supposedly, at least. Let’s take a quick step-by-step at why this design is clearly a fake. Apple’s an easy candidate because their brand is so strictly controlled on apple.com. Every detail is executed to precision.read more | digg story [...]
December 7th | #
Are you sure this is a case pf “class room project” and NOT a real world client project. I mean we have all had Vespas and Minis as our ‘class room clients’ so that we can push our design limits. Besdies, there are so many kids out there doing the next gen iPod and iPhone concepts… Shall we boo ‘em too?
December 7th | #
That’s funny. When I saw the posting. I thought it was a nasty design. Yeah, it has some cool elements, but it’s too dark and I don’t like the abrupt break in width. Good job, foiling this impostor.
December 7th | #
God how sad are you! Writing a whole article on THIS! Do you have a life?
December 7th | #
dude. the font apple uses is not apple myriad. apple myriad doesn’t even exist. there are versions of myriad (myriad, myriad pro) but apple most definitely uses frutiger as its font of choice for their website and products.
myriad might look similar but it’s definitely frutiger. it’s like getting arial and helvetica switched.
December 7th | #
Good work. You need a good eye for this sort of thing.
December 7th | #
I cant believe the person who made that is adding it on his portfolio
December 7th | #
your dumb
December 7th | #
Your blog is shit, and so is your ego.
Seriously, crawl out of apples asshole and check out the sun, sometime.
December 7th | #
Well, we know where all the trolls hang out on the internet…
Diggers - Congratulations, you have been awarded the Crown of Asshatery. With all of your comment goodness you spread throughout the internet via Digg, you properly analyze each Digg article and speak your mind using only the most profane language to desecrate each Digg article you find. What would the blogosphere be without you? We salute you Diggers.
Here is the Crown of Asshatery, where it with pride and continue the good work or the MySpacers might take it back.
December 7th | #
[...] Spotting a fake: “New apple design†- Warpspire [...]
December 8th | #
It’s the digg recall that showed it as re-design. On the website itself it was clearly saying it was some guy who made a design that would look nice. Just like the Google redesign or the eBay one.
December 8th | #
This is one of the funniest comment threads I have read in a long time!
All these trolls coming to piss on you Kyle… It’s hilarious!
December 8th | #
You didn’t mention the video player. Apple would have taken the whole bottom bar out of it or left it for QuickTime to handle, not the stupid scan lines.
I believe that this would be a nice redesign if the errors you spotted were fixed.
Austin
December 8th | #
wow, kyle… lots of haters. pretty funny.
December 8th | #
view apple’s souce code ass, arial is an optionaly offered css rendered font based on end user computer. this design was a good attempt with-in a personal portfolio. desu, you get props. nice work.
now, if you are going to get picky on design… i’d recommend working on hemingway some more… it needs quite a bit of work. nice try though.
December 8th | #
[...] Enter Kyle Neal of Warpspire.com. I subscribe to his feed (mainly because I’m interested in his work on Hemingway), and noticed a post from him within an hour: Spotting a fake: “New apple design”. Evidently, someone else noticed it too, because the story got Dugg. (Since yesterday, his post has received 1100 diggs.) Some of that traffic ended up bleeding over to my site because I had posted in the comments. [...]
December 8th | #
I’d like to know where it is you work and what design firm you are head of? It’s designers like you who love to attached other people’s work but never really have credentials to say they are better.
There was really no reason to be such a jerk about it. It’s a pretty neat layout and I don’t see anything on there indicating it was more than just a test?
December 8th | #
“There’s a lot more to design than pretty colors and fancy gradients.”
FUCKING SPOT ON! :)
Garish amateurish crap, very little actual design ability going on there more just a string of photoshop effects which anyone can do and has nothing to do with your design ability, ABSOLUTE SCHOOLBOY ERRORS how can someone put Arial on an Apple design and get the ‘i’ wrong on the products.
Then again the company who it was a hiring test for is pretty terrible too.
December 8th | #
[...] [...]
December 10th | #
i first saw this few days back. i came to it today so that i could post it on my blog. But after reading this, i am glad i didn’t post it earlier.
Keep up the good work. Good spoting.
December 11th | #
Kyle - Nice work, a very keen eye…I certainly would not have noticed some of the errors you posted about.
Enjoyed reading the comments more than the article I think, incredibly amusing.
To those of you that have been ripping Kyle, all I can say is: “Get a life”. It’s just a freaking blog post with his opinion!!! GET OVER IT.
December 11th | #
I love how all the people who proclaim that this is terrible, ass-hattish, and a waste of time read through the the article and comment on it with an equally long and hateful comment of how you sucked so many minutes from their miserable lives.
This is an expression of proud geekiness, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun! When I first saw the post, I thought it was true. It feels to me as if Desu was actually trying to abuse Digg by naming his entry what he did, and all his defenders (or at least, your opposers) don’t even realize that the one thing you did was observe. Great job!
December 11th | #
I love to read criticism from digg users.
Makes me laugh.
Great post kyle!
December 12th | #
Generally people who say “get a life”, etc. are pretty unexciting uninteresting people themselves. Lets face it, how many ignorant, insulting, intolerant wankers do you know who are successful?
Yeah quite.
December 12th | #
The brain power of digg users could power my vibrator.
That’s as close as they would ever get to a real vagina anyway.
Kyle, just keep doing what you do.
December 14th | #
Well, I agree with you about that it’s poorly done, and I would expect more from desmond since he’s a great designer. It’s pretty funny to see the big ‘ol digg-effect. This is clearly not a serious project from desmond. so stop the hatred :)
December 14th | #
Good post, Kyle. And thanks for leaving comments on. Gave me a good laugh. Digg users are funny. Idiots, but funny :)
December 18th | #
Digg is crap, but you did a good job on reflecting the bad typo and all.
January 7th | #
I have another one! Apple would never use that flash video player looking thing, they always use Quicktime (for obvious reasons).
January 8th | #
It looks pretty cool. It has it’s problems but I’ve always liked darker designs.
February 21st | #
what kind of web designing software did he use to duplicate the site almost accurately….but not close enough? I could’nt tell the difference till now
March 28th | #
LOL. Good catch, Kyle.
About getting high up on Digg is probably related to our need to feed, really!
Nevertheless, the Apple designers will digest this as ‘where do we go now?’ Probably sitting and twiddling thumbs at the moment.
It’s really hard to beat a well designed and established website…
Good entry. Keep it up. Cheers.
June 11th | #
Well… While i do agree that this is probably a fake or a very very rough draft, you have to admit that it is somewhat “close” to the new design that apple are now using (think they just launched the new site design today, 6/11/07). It has similarities, might just be coincidence of course.
June 11th | #
The only thing close is the search bar moved up top… the rest of it is completely different.
June 29th | #
Generally people who say “get a life”, etc. are pretty unexciting uninteresting people themselves. Lets face it, how many ignorant, insulting, intolerant wankers do you know who are successful?
July 11th | #
You people need to get a fucking life!!!
So what?!?! does it really matter?!?! its just someone playing about!!
Cut him a break!!
I simply cannot believe why someone would take time out of their day to post this shit entry!!! and just to boot, I cant believe that I took the time to tell you how sad you all are!!!
July 28th | #
There’s a short article in the current Los Angeles Magazine about an architecturally interesting addition to a Hancock Park home–a personal library, to be specific. Now that’s what we all need!
September 1st | #
Nice…
October 5th | #
lots of haters. pretty funny.
October 23rd | #
how come i never saw this post before??? HAHA.
like you, i find this extremely hilarious. and i’m pretty sure we all know why.
November 1st | #
[...] read more | digg story [...]
November 5th | #
These guys are really stupid, if you fake Apple, do it correctly and do some research before starting!
December 11th | #
Good effort nice design,
I agree with “desu” you sound like your Mr design-god of the year or sumet.
You must have too much time on your hands to be picking things like this apart!
like the guy says, see if you can do any better!!!
January 2nd | #
Cool!
January 7th | #
Thanks for this article. I don’t really care if it was a fake or for a portfolio or whatever, but your dissection made me think, and I’ll focus more on details in my designs from now on.
February 12th | #
Hello, I am a fan of Apple … And not laugh, not because girls bin :-(
Thank you, they have so beautiful and informative blog done. Bin now :-) always there when I read.
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