I finally got around to reading Mona Simpson's eulogy of her brother, Steve Jobs. She delivered it at the Memorial Church of Stanford University and "The New York Times" printed the text last Sunday. You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html?src=me&ref=general
If you have the time, you should read Simpson's thoughts; they should take only about 10 minutes to get through but they'll give you things to think about for years.
There's a bit in the eulogy that got me thinking about so much of the bullshit we endure in advertising. Simpson calls it Jobs' philosophy of aesthetics.
“Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”
It's easy to see Jobs' philosophy at work in the advertising he and his agencies produced.
There is nothing fashionable, trendy or transitory about the art and commerce Jobs helped create. His ads are boring. They are most-often simply product shots or simple product demonstrations.
He eschewed advertising fashion. Conversations about brands. "Liking." And other whims.
He relied on the classics. Old typefaces. Simple design. An absence of fussiness.
That's all.
