Apple Job Let a Small Firm Fly High

When Doug Patton and his 12-person design firm were chosen by Apple Computer Corp. to design a new kind of high-technology office, they ascended into industrial design heaven.

Like other small industrial design consultants, Costa Mesa-based Patton Design makes its living improving the form and function of products ranging from computers to stereos to medical devices. And although the company’s business appears to be robust--the client list includes Mitsubishi Electric, General Motors and McDonnell Douglas--there’s still nothing better than a major, open-ended project from an innovative firm like Apple.

The Apple Workspace 2000 project--an innovative design for the office of the future--involved about four months of frenzied labor by four designers and five model-makers, and the firm temporarily grew to about 20 people.

But Patton, whose office is lined with audio-visual equipment and furniture that he designed, said the hard work goes with the territory: “Every good project has drawn blood.”

In addition to Patton himself, a graduate of Cal State Long Beach who dabbled in art and architecture before settling on industrial design, the youthful design team for Workspace 2000 included Richard Jung, Matt Duncan and Joan Cirrany--all of whom also studied industrial design at CSULB. Jeff Thompson was responsible for the crucial task of building the highly detailed, life-size fiberglass models.

Jim Stewart, Apple’s manager for advanced design research and the originator of the Workspace 2000 project, said he looked for “aesthetic excellence, a high energy level, and people who are explorers” when hiring outside designers, and Patton was one of the companies that fit the bill.

“We like to go outside Apple, find consultants, and provide them with the attitude that anything they can imagine, we can do,” Stewart said. Patton’s effort, he added, was “very well researched, very well thought through.

For Patton, just about the only frustration in dealing with Apple stemmed from the computer company’s legendary concerns about secrecy, which prevented him from discussing the project for more than a year after its completion.

“After all the work we’ve done, I’m incredibly excited about this moment,” he said of the project’s public debut at the Pacific Design Center today.