"THE BULL" that influenced Steve Jobs and Apple's product design. Creativity and simplicity lessons from the masters.

Pablo Picasso created "The Bull", series of 11 lithographs that famously depict the beast in various stages of abstraction. The series whittles down from realistic depiction to nothing but few lines, which still is unmistakably bull. Picasso's goal was to find "spirit of the beast".

Picasso and the bull got a starring role in Apple's "Think different" ad campaign commissioned by Steve Jobs in 1997.

Steve jobs founded Apple university in 2008 to teach product design. New York Times reported that Apple secretive training program uses the 11 lithographs that make up Pablo Picasso’s The Bull to explain the company’s design process.

According to Sir Jonathan Ive, lessons from Picasso manifests into 2 core principles

1. A Thousand no’s for every yes

2. You go through more iterations until you can simply deliver your message in a very concise way

Phone without keypad was unimaginable, Picasso way of thinking made it possible to launch iPhone. The same principle was applied to roll out air pods - earphones without wires and no earphone jacks on phone.

Simplicity takes time, intelligence and creativity. It reminds me three famous simplicity quotes

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" - Albert Einstein

“I apologize for such a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one.” - Blaise Pascal and Mark Twain

Learn from the masters, make it your mission to keep it simple.

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