The new human-crafted Apple Music brand matters in an AI world

Apple just revealed a new brand identity for Apple Music, with the expected turn to Liquid Glass. I’m not much of a fan of their new design language in general; this is where I admit that I’m still running MacOS Sequoia and have grumpy things to say about rounded corner radii and text legibility. It’s just a trend, it will pass, and at some point I’ll probably cave and upgrade when it starts actually affecting my ability to get work done, or more importantly get security updates. Once I adjust, I’ll stop noticing it, and life will go on.

苹果公司刚刚发布了 Apple Music 的全新品牌形象，不出所料地转向了“液态玻璃”（Liquid Glass）风格。总的来说，我并不是他们这种新设计语言的粉丝；我得承认，我目前还在使用 MacOS Sequoia 系统，对于圆角半径和文字易读性，我有一些抱怨。这只是一种潮流，终会过去。等到它真正影响到我的工作效率，或者更重要的是影响到安全更新时，我大概会妥协并进行升级。一旦适应了，我就不会再注意到它，生活也会继续。

As such, I wouldn’t normally find an obvious rebrand like this notable, much less feel like I had much to say about it. But then I happened to catch Apple’s behind-the-scenes video in my YouTube recommendations, and I realized I did have thoughts. It’s a short clip, respecting your time at just a little over a minute long if you want to watch for yourself. Let’s get the obvious part out of the way: It’s pretty peak Apple. More than a little pretentious, with all the resources a $5 trillion market cap can bring to bear on every problem.

因此，我通常不会觉得这种明显的品牌重塑有什么值得注意的地方，更不会觉得对此有什么可说的。但后来我在 YouTube 推荐中偶然看到了苹果的幕后制作视频，我意识到我确实有一些想法。这是一段很短的视频，如果你想亲自观看，它只会占用你一分钟多一点的时间。让我们先说点显而易见的：这非常“苹果”。它显得有些自命不凡，动用了五万亿美元市值公司所能调动的一切资源来解决每一个问题。

There’s a design agency (TBWA/Media Arts Lab), a pop hitmaker music producer (Fred again.. and yes, that’s how you spell it), a whole crewed set with cameras and lighting, and a mineral oil tank equipped with a transducer to effectively transmit audio signals into physical ripples. They shot a ton of footage of the oil (chosen for its higher viscosity) interacting with the branding printed on transparent panels. Fast Company has a nice detailed breakdown of the technical aspects if you want to dig in more. It’s a little eye-rolly with the narration, but honestly also lovely in the execution and care.

其中包括一家设计代理公司（TBWA/Media Arts Lab）、一位流行音乐制作人（Fred again..，没错，名字就是这么拼的）、一整套配备摄像机和灯光的摄制组，以及一个装有换能器的矿物油箱，用于将音频信号有效地转化为物理涟漪。他们拍摄了大量关于油（因其粘度较高而被选中）与印在透明面板上的品牌标识相互作用的素材。如果你想深入了解，Fast Company 对其中的技术细节有很好的详细分析。虽然旁白让人有点想翻白眼，但老实说，其执行过程和用心程度确实令人赞赏。

And it made me realize how much I think we’re all going to value this kind of hands-on, human crafting in an era where anything can be generated out of a prompt. Like many Ars readers, I have feelings about generative AI imagery. It’s feeling increasingly impossible to avoid in daily life. My new favorite term is “slop ghouls.” One really unfortunate side effect of that persistence is a new natural tendency to be suspicious of everything you see. Was that picture you just saw hand-drawn, or did someone prompt it into existence with styles stolen from human artists?

这让我意识到，在一个任何东西都可以通过提示词生成的时代，我们所有人将会有多么珍视这种亲手制作的人类工艺。和许多 Ars 的读者一样，我对生成式 AI 图像也有自己的看法。在日常生活中，它似乎越来越难以避免。我最近最喜欢的词是“垃圾食尸鬼”（slop ghouls）。这种现象持续存在的一个非常不幸的副作用是，人们产生了一种新的自然倾向，即对所看到的一切都持怀疑态度。你刚才看到的那张图是手绘的，还是有人通过窃取人类艺术家的风格，用提示词生成的？

I see us increasingly place genuine value on not just human-created craft, but seeing the process behind it that shows the hands at work. This Apple video was a neat bit of promotion, but it also provided the receipts. Real people did real things in the physical world to make the final images and videos. The final effect is obviously cleaned up and post-processed. But when I look at it now, I don’t just see Liquid Glass; I see the humans and their time and energy and creativity. To me, at least, that matters. Showing your work, proving the time you put in—I appreciate it. I’m slightly less grumpy for it!

我发现我们越来越看重的不只是人类创作的工艺，还有其背后展示人类劳作过程的痕迹。苹果的这段视频不仅是一次巧妙的宣传，还提供了“证据”。真实的人在物理世界中做了真实的事情，才制作出了最终的图像和视频。最终的效果显然经过了清理和后期处理。但当我再看它时，我看到的不仅仅是“液态玻璃”；我看到了人类，看到了他们的时间、精力和创造力。至少对我来说，这很重要。展示你的工作，证明你投入的时间——我很欣赏这一点。为此，我的怨气也少了一些！

Generative AI is likely here to stay. There’s no stuffing the genie back in the bottle. I probably need to find some peace with that, though I reserve the right to still yell at clouds about it. In the meantime, I think we should do more to celebrate human involvement in things and not be shy about showing the process and behind-the-scenes work.

生成式 AI 很可能会长期存在。魔鬼已经从瓶子里放出来了，无法再塞回去。我可能需要与此达成和解，尽管我保留继续对此抱怨的权利。与此同时，我认为我们应该更多地赞美人类在事物中的参与，并且不要羞于展示制作过程和幕后工作。