Moving to Apple
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Over the next couple weeks there are going to be some major changes in my life. I am moving to down to Cupertino, CA where I will be designing user interfaces and drawing icons for Mac OS X at Apple.
Unfortunately this means I will be leaving Delicious Monster, the software company I founded with Wil Shipley about a year ago. Our first product Delicious Library has been a run away success and it has a great future ahead. I have created detailed designs for version 2.0 that Wil will be working off as he completes this incredible release. For more on Delicious Monster's future check out this lengthy interview with Wil on the drunken blog.
I am probably moving down next week into an temporary apartment where I will stay for the next month as I search a permanent place. The next couple weeks are going to be nuts.
147 Comments:
Congratulations, Mike! I wish you the best of luck at Apple.
You knew it had to happen sooner or later.
It's like joining the mother ship.
Please keep us informed when you re-do the metal look of iTunes with a wood motif.
Don't forget to post any and all fuzzy camera phone pics of any Disney branded AMD holographic tablet macs you happen to see while crawling around in the R&D labs.
Wood you believe I actually made this lame joke?
omg the enviousness >_<
i hope you'll have great time there
Great news for you and for Mac OS X! Congratulations!
What took them so long to hire you?!
Congratulations - I'm very jealous!
Wow, Mike! Congrats!! . I wish you best of luck and fun there;)
This is just great news Mike. I wish you the best of luck. Now go and design some wicked user interfaces ;)
Fantastic news! Just never forget Aqua and defend her from the other UI guys at Apple!
Hey, congrats! Make 'em stick to their UI guidelines! ;-)
Mike, congratulations! Say hi to our Dutch pride Bas Ording (if he's still in there). Please keep posting to this weblog. It doesn't need to be Apple related, just signs of life.
I don't want you to disappear in the black hole of creative talent.
But working for Apple is certainy one of the things I would love to do once.
Good luck, buddy.
Congratulations.
Will you continue blogging while being an Apple employee?
Congratulations Mike,
I hope we can still have you at ichat ;)
Good luck, I heard they have a kick-ass cafeteria... mmm breakfast...
Mike, I BEG of you to talk to the iChat team and demand that we get TABS in the next release. That, and the icon kinda sucks - I'm sure you can do that. :)
Tabs tabs tabs
Congratulations! I'm confident that you can set everything straight over there GUI-wise. Best of luck! I can't wait to see your work in future Apple releases.
all the best mate..
Have fun Mike. That totally rocks.
well deserved, sir. congrats!
Congratulations, I look forward to seeing your work on the interface.
Good to see you reppin the North West. Kick ass Mike.
Please try to clean up some of the mess they've been making. I know your work will be a vast improvement. Good luck, sir.
May the pod be with you... I'm sorry, I just don't have any better things to say just now :)
Congratulations, Mike! I can't think of a better place to work. With your world being turned upside down for the next month or so, don't forget about the blog. Keep us in the loop!
Congrats Mike! Good luck with finding a living area and I hope you have a great time working at Apple.
Congratulations! I expect to be seeing your work in Leopard. ;)
Who will be the new interface designer at Delicious Monster?
Congrats Mike. Apple is very fortunate to have your talent working for them. I expect great things!!!
Mike, welcome to the family. Email me when you get down here and we'll hook up for lunch.
Fantastic news Mike! Good Luck.
Congratulations on your new job. Although, I am just a little bummed seeing that Apple has swallowed yet another quality thrid-party developer, thus depleting the stock out outside productions that much more.
Say hi to Erik Hendrickson in HR for me.
I've gotta be honest--this is bad news! I'm glad you're getting a new opportunity, Mike, but it's like you're being assimilated into the Big Machine. At least you'll bring some serious class and skill to it, though.
Best of luck, don't forget your roots--we on the other side will always welcome you back.
I love seeing Mac folks "making it" outside of Apple, so in the sense that you are being assimilated, it is a bit sad for me.
However, I've always been a fan of your work and Apple seems to be wandering in the desert in regards to UI design lately, so I hope you can make a big splash and get things more consistent and simple.
My personal request is a simple, but powerful date control with built in localization support for all the world's date formats. NSDatePicker is a start but it could use some Matas Magic. If you are not working on that kind of stuff, maybe you can find the folks who are and inspire them. I'd love it for Timeline.
Good luck and blog what you can about your experience!
Congrats Mike, have fun at Apple!
Sweeeeeert Have fun and dont get jaded
Congrats Mike! Whip those Apple folks in shape! They're getting a little flabby around the edges :)
Looks like that spells the end to this blog of any interesting content. It was fun while it lasted. Congrats on the job, your work is deserving of such a position.
Congratulations Mike !
I wish you good luck for your new job and really hope you can still maintain this blog...
cheers,
Congrats Mike! Sounds like you will have a great time :)
Best of luck!!
welcome to the team mike, congrats! we'll live it up in cupertino when you get here.
Thanks for all the support. I will defiantly keep my blog going, for course I won't be talking about unreleased Apple products though.
Nice one. Steve likes his coffee not too weak and no sugar (but I guess you know that already!)
Please make a revised Finder your first project at Apple. The Finder's got to be the single worst UI travesty I've ever seen coming from Apple.
Congratulations!
Congratulations Mr Mike! I sincerely wish you all the best. Keep doing amazing things mate!
Have fun Mike! Keep those UI guys in shape... best of luck!
Congratulations Mike! I'm not surprise to see you rising to the top because you have amazing talent and I'm anxious and curious to see what great you'll be dishing out at Apple.
Please bring CONSISTENCY to the OSX UI. Please?
Once a goofy kid who could not spell on the Appleinsider Forums, now inside apple itself!
Great job Mike!
Congratulations, man. Loved Delicious Library, and I'm sure you'll do great work at Apple. Try to help them sort out their UI problems, would you? So, basically, what everyone else has said already.
Go prove yourself!
Listen man, take advantage and keep Apple rolling, help them squash some bugs and keep innovating. Good luck and congratulations.
I pretty much agree with everyone else who's posted. Good luck.
Wow. What a dream. I wish you the best of luck, and although I don't know you - you don't know me any more. Good luck with how things go. I'll be watching and listening.
Ah, cool that you went public with it. Now I can tell people who aren't under Apple NDA. ;)
Welcome to the neighborhood, Mike. You're going to have a blast in Cupertino.
-jcr
Destiny.
Congratulations Mike, may you revel in creating the insanely great. Your talent, inspiration and energy will be a great asset in that endeavor!
This is great news, congratulations! We'll be on the look out for 'delicious' Apple icons. ;)
Congratulations!
Congratulations, Mike! It's a life time opportunity for you, man. Grab this chance and make it glow, I believe you can make it shine as the sun with your amazing talent.
Best luck to you.
Gavin Chang, from far far away Taiwan
Congrats! Great news for all OSX users =)
Well done Mike. Do great work! Enjoy and good luck
My very best wishes from Germany/Düsseldorf to you at Apple. Maybe you remember: I build the first german videotraining for your DL:-)
Maybe you need new Learning Quicktimes Movies? Send me an email: dirk.kuepper@ish.de
Aesthetic GENIUS! Please make my room look like your icons! ^_^
You don't know me, and I barely know you but I felt compelled to wish you all the best. I'm a year older than you and so jealous! You clearly have a great future ahead of you. Good luck!
P.S. Please do what you can with Mail, it sux!
congratulation directly from munich, germany. I followed intently what you've done and how you did it (especially at delicious monster). Apple defnitely made a good choice. Now there App's will get the Matas' typic distinctiveness, that we're all waiting for ;-)
Send out some greetings to John G.
He needs to reply to some emails from me ;-)
me.
Wishing you the very best of luck with the job. I trust you'll keep the blog going ... ?? (assuming Steve sanctions it ...) ;-)
congratulations, i took a look at your work and all of that ist really very good. good luck @ apple
you really deserve it
congratulations, i took a look at your work and all of that is really very good. good luck @ apple
you really deserve it
Hey Mike,
Congrats! Keep up the great blog though, and...
don't let them change you man! don't let em!
Kick ass.
You will do good things, you have vision, and that's a good thing @ Apple. That must be what put you on their radar (unless you've been bombarding them with resumes, which might also put you on their radar, I don't know).
Luckily, working at Apple means you can be you, as long as you don't blog about it ;-)
//k
Congrats!
Delicious Monster maker and Apple - a perfect fit!
Apple is in many ways a big bad corporation but you share a design philosophy. All the best!
If there is something to do at Apple, than its maybe not that important to get even more icons (http://www.xicons.com has them all) but it may be a nice idea to rewrite the Finder. In the end: If the "Finder.app" would have lived up to its name, we would not have seen something like "Spotlight", right?
Hopefully your collegues will continue the marvellous products of the "Delicious" kind. Have a good time there at Apple. Hopefully we see you in some WWDC Session next WWDC.
Have fun.
Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us.
These comments are totally fascinating to read. It's a foreign idea to me that Apple will somehow "ruin" someone. I've been here three years, and it's made me stronger than ever. I guarantee you'll be stretched and grow in new ways. That's a cinch.
I've never seen someone get so much attention by coming to Apple. Well... except for people who have been in the industry for 20+ years, like Steve. You haven't even been alive for that long, so I'd say you're doing pretty well for publicity. :-)
Let me know if you need help moving.
I think we've found a successor to Steve Jobs! ;-)
Congrats, Mike, and all the best to you! Can't wait to see your masterpiece in future versions of OS X!
Congrats! I heard the news and wanted to personally wish you the best at Cupertino. Now if history tends to repeat itself at Apple (and it tends to do just that). I expect the DVD Player to be refitted with an iTunes/Delicious interface so we can finally open the new Apple Media Store! Woo Hoo!
You heard it hear first, folks!
Say hi to Uncle Steve for me!
Much respect bro. Oh, and thanks for mentioning TED, based on your post I attended TED global last week, it rocked...!
Congrats. No, go fix the Finder!
Good luck. Work hard… at kicking ass. If you don't, there will be bug reports with your name on them! ;)
Congratulations!
Your interface work is some of the best I have seen, and your comments on how you created it were clear and concise. This is a rare combination - someone with as aesthetic sense and the ability to describe how they do what they do.
Enjoy it!
Scott
Kickass man, congratulations!
Hey congrats Mike. Glad to see Apple is getting some fresh meat! I love your blog and I am sure that I will love the work you do in the next release of OS X.
Congratulations Mike!!!
you are a great designer.
Congratulations Mike! I have enjoyed the Monster, and I'm sure that you will be a great addition to the team at Apple!
HI mike ..you don't know me but I'm want to be inferface designer ...this is really encouraging ...Apple is hard work..and fun..I heard...so I hope you do great work there.. what is going to happen to your company delicious monster?..keeping it or selling it?
hope u help make the next mac ox better then longhorn...hahahah...
peace ...
Congrats, Mike!
I saw you walking around yesterday at Apple when I was hanging out with my brother - I was planning on introducing myself but didn't get the chance!
Anyways - you make Mac OS X looks it's prettiest, you hear?!
Moving to the Bay Area, huh? Yikes! You're going to miss Seattle big time.
I am sure you are gonna kick ass!
;)
Best wishes.
I like eating chocolate.
Hey Mike, congratulations on your new job man! You will surely make Apple's icon look much better ;-)
The Devix Design Team is happy fo you, you inspire us. Congratulations once again.
[faux British accent] "You bastard! You lucky, LUCKY bastard! Oh, how I dream of being spat at in the face..."
Anyway, congrats and all. Don't let the Big Red Corporate Machine eat you up too fast. All else fails, you can start your own company again. :)
bravo!
lodovico, Italy
Congratulations, Mike !
Dan (French Mac user)
it's about time!!
congratulations!! go kick some ass bro! :P
What an awesome opportunity, congratulations Mike!
Mike, I've been reading your blog since you put up the instructions for the Life Poster. You really are an inspiration. You have bags of confidence and sackfuls of talent. You are also generous with your knowledge. You are less than half my age and I look to you for motivation quite often! It couldn't happen to a more deserving case. I wish you the very best at Apple, I really do.
Congratulations - So so jealous! See if you can get a grassy wallpaper in the next OS :o)
Congratulations Mike! I've always loved your icons and i'm not surprised that Apple scooped you up! Keep up the great work and i'm sure that OSX will profit from your considerable talent!
Very good Work Mike ... good luck ;)
Heh, you don't need good luck for the job, but for living in the area of Cupertino. The whole valley below SF is one screwed-up environment. And SF is pretty screwed up after the internet craze.
Congratulations, Mike ! Go Rock!
Gleydston(from brazil)
Congrats man... does this mean Aqua will become Paper and Plastic? Probably not, but I hope they let you come up with an alternative to Aqua. Good luck and have fun!
So awesome dude. Awesome awesome awesome. Tell Steve hi.
Congrats! I can't wait to see the Leopard UI! :D
According to a post on his blog, Mike Matas, now formerly of Delicious Monster and the Omni Group, has accepted a position at Apple, ostensibly working on user interfaces and icon design.
However, sources in the know indicate that Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself has personally tapped Matas with the aim of turning the 19-year-old into his disciple. Jobs believes that Matas will be Luke Skywalker to his Obi-wan Kenobi, Charlie Bucket to his Willie Wonka, or Anakin Skywalker to his Emperor Palpatine, depending on your opinion about Steve Jobs.
Enigmatic spiritual leader, eccentric genius or ruthless dictator (don't feel the need to pick just one).
"I was Mike's age when I started Apple," Jobs said. "Who else would I pass my empire on to? [Apple Senior Vice President of the iPod Division] Jon Rubinstein? Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Ha! Ah-HA-HA-HA!
"Ahhh...
"No, but seriously, Jon does good work. Really. I mean that."
According to some sources, Jobs himself met with Matas to seal the deal. But once the niceties had been worked out, Jobs quickly attempted to exert control over him.
"Now, my young padawan," Jobs reportedly said to Matas. "You must kill your former master for me! Kill [Delicious Monster co-founder] Wil Shipley!"
"Um... no," Matas reportedly replied.
"KILL HIM!" Jobs reportedly insisted.
"Uh... no," Matas reportedly said.
"Oooh... you've... you've... that makes me so... you're really not getting started on the right foot. But never mind that! Now, which color lightsaber do you want? Blue or green? I mean… there's purple, too, but… nobody's really using purple much anymore. Most people find it kind of... you know... foo-foo."
A devastated Delicious Monster CEO Wil Shipley attempted to appear upbeat.
"I'm excited for Mike, naturally, and I wish him the best," Shipley said.
"Meanwhile the post-Mike Matas era for Delicious Monster will still feature the same software design that won us two Apple Design Awards. We're hard at work on Delicious Library 2.0 and we've got an exciting new non-Mike product in the pipeline that I'm not at liberty to discuss right now. But let me just leave you with one word to whet your appetite: hummels."
Shipley smiled and raised his eyebrows several times.
"Hummels," he repeated, leaning forward as if for emphasis.
Matas, meanwhile, indicated that he is looking for people to help him move.
Mike, fantastic news, just keep the blog and photo's coming, please...
Congrats.
Someone who got actually your travel authorization by mistake thought that you were nothing but a fictious person until now. And who gets normally all your spam too.
hi michael
hi michael
Nice news mike. Stay level headed, if you ever get overwhelmed reme. your the shiz and they know it, thats why they want you. Can't wait to read about your cali adventures. Oh and uhhh...dibs on your seattle pad.
Congrats! It was a matter of time that Apple got you in-house. Get ready for some sticker shock - housing prices are insane here in the bay area. Bring the bike and save a ton on gas. We're up over $2.50 a gallon these days :)
That's good to know Mike!!!
Glad to know that Steve Jobs DID recognize you and decided to make you part of his team. I bet it's an honor right? Partly, excited and nervous, huh? ;)
Good luck to you... hopefully you keep your promise regarding keeping post here in your blog.
:D
That's good to know Mike!!!
Glad to know that Steve Jobs DID recognize you and decided to make you part of his team. I bet it's an honor right? Partly, excited and nervous, huh? ;)
Good luck to you... hopefully you keep your promise regarding keeping post here in your blog.
:D
FTFF!
Congratulations, I hope you enjoy your time at Apple.