How do you out-Apple Apple? Produce the greatest Producer.
In 1994, Mark Malamud and I were the design and technology leads defining the future of the Windows user interface. Windows 95 started to look like a hit product and suddenly anybody at Microsoft who knew what a pixel was wanted to mess with things. So we decided to rise above the noise.
If you think it was hard to argue the correct background color for a help icon, imagine what it took to get this done.
The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I’d been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, “Here’s a specific problem — solve it.”
The thing from the agency said, “We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,” this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said “and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.”
I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel.
https://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Q-and-A-With-Brian-Eno-2979740.php
