EIGHTIES “He had approached Richard Sapper, who designed I.B.M.’s ThinkPad—a black cigar box. (Sapper was tempted, he told me, a little ruefully, but didn’t want to abandon his I.B.M. contract for a “tiny, tiny company.”) Jobs had also met with Hartmut Esslinger, who, as a consultant, was Apple’s industrial designer in the eighties. Esslinger, in an e-mail, recalled telling Jobs that Apple’s existing team, including Ive, “was very talented and competent if given the right leadership.”” 1{IN THE EIGHTIES"in this context it means 1980s or the Esslinger age ? Jonathan Ive and the Future of Apple - The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-come via Instapaper