Immortalizing Life LessonsJef Raskin’s gift to his son offers fatherly guidance, even after Jef is gone
Aza Raskin recently wrote a beautiful piece for Fast Company on a gift his father (Jef Raskin, known for inventing the Macintosh) presented to him shortly before his death. The […]
Aza Raskin recently wrote a beautiful piece for Fast Company on a gift his father (Jef Raskin, known for inventing the Macintosh) presented to him shortly before his death. The gift from Jef, who passed away in 2005 from pancreatic cancer, was a vintage safety razor; to the non-designer, this may sound odd, but its significance is perfectly clear to Aza. The razor, which “takes a flat blade and arches it under a metal shield,” is “the kind of clear insight for which all designers and inventors strive: beauty in turning constraints into advantages.”
The razor represents not only ideals of design, but a perspective on life:
“That razor is a message, rendered in steel and wood, about an incorporeal way of thought. That was my father’s final gift to me: A way of looking at the world through the lens of playful questioning, which reveals more than just an answer.”
-
I’ve wondered all these years how the word “font” came about.
-
Very neat that he found such beautiful significance in his father’s gift.
Leave a Reply