Ten days ago, I’ve came by “Iconic Book: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation” while surfing the net. First thing that crossed my mind was: “Wow that the Apple Bible”. I immediately ordered my copy ($75 cost for the book plus 50$ for ship costs -I live in Greece-). Three days ago I found a note in my door, that I have a parcel waiting for me in my nearest post office. Next morning I got it. First impression? This book is much bigger than I thought it would be. It is elegant, printed in high quality paper, exactly like an Apple book should be.
Iconic Book is a photo book with all Apple products from 1976 up to iPhone 5 and iPad mini. The writer, Jonathan Zufi, a 42-year-old Australian native, begun buying vintage Apple products 4 years-ago. He collected a ton of products and started taking photos of them. Well known Apple personalities -including Steve Wozniak- helped him and the result was outstanding: a collection of more than 150,000 photos, some 3,500 of which Mr. Zufi displays on a website and more than 650 of which he has curated into a new 326-page coffee-table-sized book, the Iconic Book.
The book is broken down into six main sections: desktops, portables, peripherals, iDevices, prototypes and packaging. The prototypes section is the most fascinating, lot of stuff that never came to light in there. I also enjoyed the peripherals section. I’ve used mac since 6-year old (the first mac that I remember at home was my father’s Quadra, but I never new that Apple has built a point to shot camera.
As the writer mentions in an interview in the WSJ:
“I wanted to create a repository where people who also love the company and its products could go and reminisce, I want people who are a bit younger who think Apple just makes things that start with “i” to know this company used to make clunky printers.”
And that his books exactly does. His book’s focus is on the large pictures that sometimes span both pages, but the quotes sewn throughout the pages are just as powerful. Jonathan Ive’s, Tim Cook’s and of course Steve Jobs’ words are everywhere. Navigating the pages of this book is like watching Apple product introductions from 1984 till 2013.
Iconic book is pricey -especially if you live outside the US and the shipping cost is high- but like every Apple product it definitely worths it. Print quality is high and even with very little text, it manages to travel you through Apple’s evolution throughout the years. A must-have for every Apple fan out there. Period.
My wife bought a copy for me and had it shipped to New Zealand for my birthday a couple of months ago – it is still my absolute favourite book and will be for awhile to come
@Euan: It is a great collection book with high quality pictures even from the old products. Printing quality is also excellent.