SCIENCE/ TECHNOLOGY : O.C. Design Firm Takes Computers Out of Their Boxes

For Doug Patton, president of Patton Design Enterprises in Costa Mesa, one of the most frustrating tasks is trying to talk computer manufacturers into creating something more than a plain “box” when building a personal computer.

Patton’s firm has served as a design consultant to Apple Computer Inc. since May, 1987. During that time, his company has generated more than 100 designs--with plenty of what company designer Rick Jung calls “soft curves and sensuous crowns”--for a series of low-cost computers Apple launched in October.

More than a half-dozen firms competed to develop the new look for Apple, each of them designing three different concepts known as Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear. The final version of the work was called Goldilocks.

“We let our imagination loose on the project,” he said. “It was very exciting trying to come up with a vision of the future.”

Patton said he worked 12 to 15 hours a day on the project, which represented his firm’s first big consulting contract. Only a portion of Patton’s designs were incorporated into the showcase Mac Classic computer, Patton said.

But if Patton gets his way, the computers of the future will be designed like sculptures, as pleasing to look at as they are to operate.

“People are beginning to realize that there has to be an emotive quality, something that makes you feel good about the work, something more human and exciting in the design of a computer,” Patton said.