I remember that answering machine quite well. It was one of the first digital answering machines, and very well made. Beautiful, compared with other answering machines of the day.
I bought one for myself, and my girlfriend broke up with me because I hadn't bought anything for her in a very long time. I wasn't a very good person back then.
But the headline is just wrong. Frog Design did not design the original Mac. Jerry Manock did. Frog Design created the Snow White design language first used on the Mac with the Mac II and Mac SE.
1) A proto Mac LC from IDEO - https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21652/lot/188/
2) Several other unused protos from Hartmut Esslinger @ FROG - https://www.engadget.com/2014/05/28/an-apple-flip-phone-from...
has a vertically-oriented screen not used on any production models. Considering the screen orientation, this very well could have been a prototype for a model targeted toward the business world, rather than the artistic, publishing and educational markets that the Mac traditionally attracted.
Clearly the writer never saw the Portrait Display, which was extensively used in desktop publishing. I loved mine.
They were very process driven but also very creative - the first time I've actually seen both of those work well together.
i don't know if that was actually true about Apple, but some other large corporations seem to view themselves in exactly that way. they treat their potential business partners and vendors as if they were beastly suitors of infinite patience invested with nothing but a powerful lust for a signed contract.
It's just a name for the style that suggests it's very beautiful and yet understated.
