Apple
Naturally as an education major at Ball State University, I am an Apple computer user. The two entities go hand in hand as is apparent through Ball State’s commitment to train pre-servive teachers to integrate technology into their coursework and classrooms. Read more: Apple and Ball State University Teachers College
Just four years ago, I came to Ball State and purchased my first Mac; at eighteen, all I was concerned about was that it was “attractive” and the latest and greatest new fangled device, but since I’ve learned that Apple is not just attractive. Rather, the streamlined nature of their products is more purposeful, and is evident in the discursive nature of their advertising, store design, and product presentation. They appeal to their identified market by saying in a sense, “hey, if you want something that works and is easy to integrate in your life, then you need this.” In particular I am intrigued by their commitment to living their campaigns in the nature by which they develop and create innovative spaces calling upon rhetoric. Apple is logical and trustworthy which appeals to our everyday lifestyles.
This past week, Apple opened a second store in New York City and upon viewing the photos of the space, I was reminded instantly of their commitment to industrial design and by way of this, a compilation of essays: Architecture of the Everyday. Juxtaposing the new store against Architecture of the Everyday, I would argue that the store both satisfies and falls short to satisfy the ideologies of editor’s Harris and Berke. Without a doubt, the store is magnificently unique and deliberately gorgeous, which goes against the texts commitment to proving that we can find the “extraordinary in the everyday,” yet because the store takes into account its surroundings through its glass construction perhaps it manages to bring the everyday into the extraordinary space which is integral to Apple stores everywhere.
According to the New York Times review of Architecture of the Everyday, “For Steven Harris, design inspiration comes not from architectural icons but from "anonymous" buildings. . .” These buildings clearly provide inspiration and complete the design by framing the store. The life of the city becomes Apple in this store. Architecture of the Everyday opposes formal extravagance for the sake of aesthetics, but the city’s natural integrity is brought into the “everydayness” that is an Apple in this space. This Apple "everydayness" is the same streamlined, clean approaches we see in ads, in the stores around the world, and in their products. I ponder then if the store on the upper Westside of New York City is creating a new trend or style in architecture (what Harris and Burke would deem another fad to oppose) out of the very things that Architecture of the Everyday embraces: "everydayness” that is the New York City which enters the glass space.
Photos by mattbuchanan
