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The Apple Macintosh was first released on January 24 , 1984 — 40 age agotoday . Wishing the Mac a glad birthday , the Folon Foundationshareda little - know anecdote : That Steve Jobs once commissioned Belgian artist Jean - Michel Folon to follow up with an illustrated character that would “ live ” in every machine and surprise the proprietor : Mr. Macintosh , aka Mac Man .
A post share by 🇧 🇪 Fondation Folon 🇧 🇪 ( @fondationfolon )
Mac graphic designer Andy Hertzfeldrecalledhearing the theme from Steve Jobs in 1982 in these language :
“ Mr. Macintosh is a mysterious little human race who live inside each Macintosh . He pops up every once in a while , when you least expect it , and then winks at you and disappear again . It will be so ready that you wo n’t be certain if you saw him or not . We ’ll plant character reference in the manuals to the legend of Mr. Macintosh , and no one will know if he ’s genuine or not . ”
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It would be another few months before Folon entered the picture , Hertzfeldwrote .
“ The software squad was inundate with more essential work , so we deferred implementing Mr. Macintosh for a while . ” But after meeting Folon , “ whose work was imbued with a humorous , playfully profound sensibility that [ Steve Jobs ] thought would be perfect for Mr. Macintosh , ” Apple ’s Centennial State - founder invite the artist to “ visit the Mac team in Cupertino for a demo and a potential commission . ”
The project did n’t go through , but as Hertzfeld wrote , it was n’t because Folon and Apple did n’t click .
“ Folon seemed fascinated by the embryonic Macintosh ” he see in 1982 , and visited Cupertino again in the spring of 1983 to show his sketch to the squad . But Apple eventually had to give up its ambition for Mr. Macintosh “ due to the scarceness of ROM , disk space and development time . ”
However , it is still a swell titbit of Mac history that also urinate for highly desirable collectibles , such as thebuttonsthat Apple made out of some of Folon ’s drawings and gave away at trade shows , aMac posterof his , or this once - auctionedlettershowing that he and Jobs remained friendly .
As you may guess , these items are pretty rarefied , but you may ascertain some comfort in digging through the links and images . My personal favorite : This original MacMac electric circuit boardwith Folon ’s Mac Man emblazoned next to its copyright notice .
