The Macintosh is 30 today and Apple has an incredible ‘timeline’ on their site, year-by-year of the most amazing people (April Greiman- 1986- on my screen). What truly moved me was the use of older people- naturally, with a timeline spanning 30 years. In such an at-times oppressively youth-oriented culture, I was so moved to see Apple’s approach, full of inspiration, energy, and excitement. I’m a white, middle-aged male (through no fault of mine) which, no joke, is like the worst thing you can be. Yet, here is collection of vibrant, visionary, inspired and inspirational humans making me proud of my more than a few grey hairs.

My favorite bio is of April Grieman, who is truly pushing, exploring limits of graphic design. They refer to her as a ‘New Wave’ artist and I guess that’s right (I can almost hear Laurie Anderson playing). I was doing collage works back then, too. The first color Xerox machines were out and I’d have to take my work to a Willoughby’s on 31st to get prints. They’d always try to get exact color matches and I would have to fight to get them printed ‘off’. I loved the the blacks that ran ‘green’ or ‘blue’, the accidental, random color results. Now it’s all on computer, with Photoshop- SO much easier than hauling a pile of clippings to a camera supply store to get copies. Reading of April Grieman has recharged my inspiration battery.

I highly recommend you visit the Apple site and read of all these amazing people, scientists, educators, artists… totally made my day.