We know Matt Groening for the obvious: he’s the creator of the classics ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Futurama’, but before becoming an animation legend he had other jobs for which he also deserves a mention. It usually goes unnoticed in his story, but Groening did a job for Apple.
The artist collaborated with the apple brand to create a promotional brochure in the form of a “Student’s Guide”, showing the main negative situations of a person who has just started higher education and how they could be solved with a Macintosh of the time.
“It’s three in the morning. Do you know where your brain is?
In the brochure, entitled “Who Needs a Computer Anyway” which you can see in full in this Flickr gallery, uses characters from the ‘Life in Hell’ comic strip with which Groening gained some popularity early in his career. Each of these characters finds themselves in a predicament that the Macintosh or its applications can solve. Here is an example with someone who is overwhelmed by the amount of work they have:
“The Overtaken”. Characteristics: high-pitched cries of despair, cursed and constant gaze. Warning: non-existent love life.
This is one of the situations described in the brochure, to explain later how to better organize your daily student work with the tools of the Mac OS of the late 80s. There are more situations like ‘The Procrastinator ‘, ‘The Imperfectionist’, ‘The Unemployed’, ‘The Hungry Student’ or ‘The Technologist’, who is fascinated by everything that happens in the world”except how to dress well
The brochure, published in 1989 and of only 16 pages, became one of the most sought after collectables. This is evidenced by a recent RRauction auction, where its price was estimated to be around $200 and the winning bid ended up exceeding $650. At $41 per page, no less.
Brochures like this no longer exist, they are unique: today they have become social media campaigns, viral videos or promotions on the brand’s official website. Nothing on paper. Keeping them will be more and more difficult, and therefore their value will continue to increase over the years.
Picture | Pablo Martinez
In Applesphere | The search for the next big thing: the mistake of trying to be just “the new Apple”
