Can John Ternus bring the fun back to Apple design?

The face of John Ternus inside a circle of iMac G3s.

Regular readers of my articles on Creative Bloq (hello, both!) will know that I've been rather down on Apple design over the last few years. While the company's noughties design was all about fun, the rise of the iPhone has given birth to a homogeny of black and silver glass slabs.

But there've been a few signs that times might be a-changing of late. After a string of duds, Apple's ad department seems to have rediscovered its mojo, and the success of the colourful MacBook Neo has cast a light on a general appetite for more personality-filled designs. And now, new reports suggest forthcoming Apple CEO John Ternus thinks a "major design shake-up" is needed. You and me both, John.

Using an Apple product used to be something of a statement (Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

According to seasoned Apple leaker Mark Gurman, Ternus is set to re-establish the influence of Apple's design team, and influence that has apparently waned in recent years. Which sounds like we could be heading for an era of bold and fun design – the kind of design Apple used to be famous for.

Which is music to my ears. It's not just nostalgia that's had me reaching for my iPod in recent months; I genuinely find Apple's designs of the 2000s more delightful. Nowadays each successive device looks identical to the one it supposedly replaced. But back then, every generation of iPod presented a marked design departure from its predecessor.

The runaway success of the MacBook Neo shows an appetite for fun design (Image credit: Future)

And there was even a time, believe it or not, when each subsequent iteration of the iPhone looked distinctly different from the last. It wasn't until the iPhone 3GS that Apple rehashed an existing design – and even that was followed by the beautiful iPhone 4, which changed the look entirely. Nowadays, in a world of incremental and iterative updates, the idea of yearly new designs feels like a novelty.

Apple design was delightful in the 2000s (Image credit: Future)

But maybe, just maybe, that's about to change. I remember when using an Apple computer felt like a statement. In a world of black and grey Microsoft stuff, it stood for fun. Maybe it can again.