|  |  | ## History of computer design: Macintosh IIcx
|  |  | Home || Introduction || Historiography || 1-Cottage industry || 2-Emerging standards || 3-Macintosh 4-frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links
|  | "Corporate" Snow White established the appearance of the Macintosh throughout the late 1980s. However, with frogdesign no longer used by Apple, the design language was adapted instead by Apple's own designers to new products. The first of such "Snow White 'skin jobs'" was by Gavin Ivester, an apprentice working at Apple while finishing an industrial design degree at San Jose State University. He was the youngest industrial designer ever to complete a shipped product (Kunkel, 61). This expresses the fallen emphasis on design at Apple during the years that products were guided by Jean-Louis Gassée, but also indicates the resilience and clarity of the Snow White language. Apple could easily follow the guidelines set by frogdesign until the use of Snow White became stale or filtered into other computer companies' products. The Macintosh IIcx design was completed by Ivester in 1987, though the product did not ship until early 1989. The IIcx is in essence a compact version of the Macintosh II. Having only three rather than six expansion slots and room for only one floppy, it is far narrower than its predecessor (see technical specifications). It has a less formal appearance than the Macintosh II, an effect generated largely by the addition of five Snow White lines between the break in the bezel where the case comes apart and the strip containing the floppy slot. The recessed base with its vertical lines are missing, replaced instead by a single line wrapping around to the back of the case, mirroring in its placement the break less than an inch from the top. The symmetry used on the case visually reinforces its ability to rest both on its bottom and on its side. The idea for designing a computer that could be turned onto its side was suggested, not by a designer, but by CEO John Sculley, who found he needed more desk space. The IIcx came with little rubber feet that could be removed from the bottom of the case and placed on its side for this first use of a "minitower" design. Its case was used again in September 1989 for the IIci, marketed very successfully towards graphic design professionals (Kunkel, 61-2). To the Corporate Snow White To a crisis at Apple (1989) Home || Introduction || Historiography || 1-Cottage industry || 2-Emerging standards || 3-Macintosh 4-frogdesign || 5-Corporate focus || Conclusion || Bibliography & links