When I saw this article I wanted to post about it because I think it’s the most wonderful ship I’ve ever seen as far as design goes. I’ve seen a lot of negative comments from those who don’t know any better and never will, but no matter how many times I look at photos and see the intricate, yet simple, design of this boat I’m amazed at how elegant it really is.
You either get it or you don’t. Plain and simple.
It’s the most perfect example of minimalist modern design I’ve seen in years, and I think it’s going to become a classic. I like to think of fiction writing that way: tight, clean, sleek, and without the messy said bookisms and adverbs (He mumbled longingly; She grumbled lovingly; He barked loudly…ick, ick, ick). Unfortunately, this kind of tight fiction is not popular in the romance genre, and frills and ruffles that aren’t needed are often inserted and people think that’s good writing. I’m talking about word economy without frills: first page; Great Gatsby. That’s what writing fiction is all about for me. And it takes years to develop. I’m still working on that kind of perfection and probably always will be.
For those who don’t know, Steve Jobs was so obsessed with minimalist design he only wore black mock turtlenecks. And he didn’t own any furniture for years because he couldn’t find anything he liked…or what he thought would work from a design POV. As the true perfectionist, he wouldn’t settle for almost as good. It had to be just right, and perfect. This followed through in every aspect of his life, which is why the iPad you’re using now looks and feels the way it does. The technology was important to him, and so was the design. I have an iPhone 3, and I don’t know if I will get the iPhone 4 or 5. Whenever I see someone use one of the newer versions I can’t help noticing how the design has suffered since the beginning. They don’t even feel the same to me, and I can’t help wondering if we’ve seen the last of that kind of exceptional minimalist design for a long time.
In any event, here’s part of the article about the yacht that was just launched.
The Venus is a sort of iPhone of yachts — minimalist in design, aluminum hulled, not cheap at a reported cost of about $138 million to build, and equipped with the latest in Apple technology.
Jobs’ influence is all over that yacht. If you’ve studied anything at all about him, and you’ve read about how hard he worked toward that kind of perfection, you’ll see the artist in him surpassed the businessman more than once in his life. And it’s a shame we don’t know more about this, because it’s not usually what we see focused on when he’s talked about now.