The Apple Macintosh was first released on January 24, 1984 — 40 years ago today. The Folon Foundation wishes Mac a very happy birthday shared a little-known anecdote: That Steve Jobs once commissioned the Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon to come up with an illustrated character that would “live” on each machine and surprise the owner: Mr. Macintosh, also known as Mac Man.
Mac designer Andy Hertzfeld reminded hearing the idea from Steve Jobs in 1982 with these words:
“Sir. Macintosh is a mysterious little man who lives inside every Macintosh. He pops up every now and then, when you least expect it, and then winks at you and disappears again. It’ll be so fast you won’t be sure if you saw him or not. We’ll plant textbook references to the legend of Mr. Macintosh and no one will know if it’s real or not.”
It would be another few months before Fallon hit the theaters, Herzfeld He wrote.
“The software team is swamped with more substantial work, so we’ve put Mr. Macintosh’s implementation on hold for a while.” But after meeting Fallon, “whose work was imbued with a humorous, playfully profound sensibility that [Steve Jobs] The thought would be perfect for Mr. Macintosh,” the Apple co-founder invited the artist “to visit the Mac team in Cupertino for a demo and a possible commission.”
The project didn’t pan out, but as Hertzfeld wrote, it wasn’t because Folon and Apple didn’t click.
“Folon seemed fascinated by the embryonic Macintosh” he saw in 1982, and he visited Cupertino again in the spring of 1983 to show his sketches to the team. But Apple eventually had to abandon its Mr. Macintosh ambitions “due to ROM scarcity, disk space and development time.”
However, it’s still a great piece of Mac history that also makes highly desirable collectibles, such as the buttons that Apple made some of Folon’s designs and gave them away at trade shows, a Poster for Mac of, or that which was once auctioned letter showing that he and Jobs remained friendly.
Image Credits: Digibarn Computer Museum
As you can guess, these items are quite rare, but you may find some solace in digging through the links and images. My personal favorite: This original Mac Mac circuit board with Folon’s Mac Man emblazoned next to the copyright notice.
