Apple
Designing for Apple's Biggest Product
Overview
When Angela Ahrendts joined Apple in 2014, she reimagined Apple Stores as modern-day town squares—community hubs for education, creativity, and human connection. I was part of the design team that helped bring this vision to life, creating the visual systems, training materials, and in-store graphics that powered the experience for both employees and customers across 500+ stores worldwide.
Services
Year
2013-2019
Strategy
Apple Stores worldwide were being redesigned with Forums (central gathering spaces featuring 8K video walls and dedicated learning areas). But architecture alone wouldn't build community. The real shift came from "Today at Apple," offering free sessions from Photo Walks to coding workshops. Apple needed design systems that scaled globally while keeping employees confident and customers engaged.
Design
I helped design content for "wallOS," the system powering the Forum's massive video walls (up to 34 feet wide). The challenge was making them purposeful for everyone, not just a big TV screen.
With dozens of product launches annually, I built flexible presentation templates that localized across regions and created training decks that reduced learning time while improving product knowledge. This helped teams walk into customer interactions with confidence and ease.
I also designed graphics and signage for Today at Apple sessions, keeping everything approachable while celebrating what each store offered.
Results
Today at Apple won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2018 for Brand Experience & Activation, plus a Titanium Lion. Within its first year, the program hosted 65,000 weekly sessions across 500+ stores, reaching millions globally. Apple Retail maintained a 90% employee retention rate—far above industry standards. The training materials I designed played a role in that, giving teams tools that respected their time and made their work easier.
To this day, the Forum remains a central part of every Apple Store, featuring visuals and wayfinding that build upon the work I did when the new store designs were still being piloted. Apple Stores worldwide became what Angela envisioned: places where "Meet me at Apple" felt as natural as meeting anywhere else.
Credits
Apple
Angela Ahrendts
Aleida Usher
Art Dias
Christina Cox
Oman Fernan
Matt Quantz
Hashem Bajwa
Apple Marcom
Agency Partners
Foster+Partners
Work & Co
TBWA\ Media Arts Lab
Elephant
Special Thanks
Tim Cook
Jony Ive
Global Apple Retail Teams