What’s Happening: Creatives quickly roasted a minute-long commercial that saw a hydraulic press flatten symbols of human creativity into a newly slim iPad Pro. While most criticized Apple’s failure to read the room, some speculate that tech giants aren’t doing much to prevent their products from destroying everything that brings us joy.

The Download: Apple campaigns usually turn product launches into cultural moments. Its groundbreaking “1984” spot, directed by Ridley Scott, promised liberation from an authoritarian tech dystopia and helped establish the Super Bowl as TV’s premier commercial showcase. In 2004, the company’s “Silhouette” iPod ads made white earphones an effortlessly cool status symbol. Then came 2015’s Shot on iPhone, a “ridiculously simple idea” that recast the device as a documenter of our lives. Even after concerns that the tech giant was losing its design cachet following the departure of Jony Ive, Apple’s campaigns have rarely missed. Under the guidance of Tor Myhren, its VP of marketing communications, Apple swept this past year’s Cannes Lions advertising awards.

So when CEO Tim Cook posted Crush, a commercial to promote the new slimmest-ever iPads, he probably wasn’t expecting a tsunami of vitriol some are comparing to Kendall Jenner’s doomed Pepsi ad. In the minute-long video, a gigantic hydraulic press slowly flattens symbols of human creativity—an acoustic guitar, a dressmaker’s mannequin, a clay bust, an arcade game, vinyl records—while Sonny and Cher’s 1972 hit “All I Ever Need Is You” plays in the background. The instruments and supplies eventually buckle and burst into pieces, their remnants splattered in paint from exploded cans. Not even Angry Birds or emojis get spared. Once the damage is done, the press lifts away to reveal the iPad Pro. The implication is clear: the slim device can do everything these unwieldy instruments can, all while slipping into the pocket of your briefcase.

The backlash was swift and unrelenting. “The ad perfectly encapsulates the insight that people think technology is killing everything we ever found joy in,” the writer Katie Deighton shared on X, “and then presents that as a good thing.” As fears loom about AI rendering creative skills obsolete and backlash mounts over the increasing intrusion of screens in modern life (fueled in part by rival Google’s disastrous Gemini launch), the wanton destruction of analog tools doesn’t quite hit the right notes.

Cook apologized and canceled plans for the commercial to air on television, but his failure to read the room is causing a major stir. Is it a turning point? Where Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial crystallized its reputation as an intrepid upstart unafraid to go against the grain, some speculate Crush indicates the company has become the callous Big Brother it once rallied against. The timing couldn’t be worse: slumping iPad sales and the Vision Pro’s cold reception are already fueling speculation that Apple might be losing its cool factor.

In Their Own Words: “In a world where the future of creativity is constantly being threatened with extinction,” Kirsty Hathaway, the executive creative director at JOAN London, tells the Financial Times, “the metaphorical crushing of creativity and cultural achievements is a stark reminder of exactly how these people are feeling: squished, squeezed, and pressurized.”

Surface Says: These feel like high stakes to promote hardware that, as Morning Brew pointed out, is “known best as a tool for toddlers to drool on in a restaurant.”

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From May 19-21, America’s premier contemporary furniture fair will take over the Javits Center. Together, ICFF and Wanted have cultivated a reputation for showcasing the best of established and emerging talents—this year is no exception. Attendees can look forward to taking in more than 450 exhibiting brands, keynote addresses by Lindsey Adelman, Lee Broom, Minjae Kim, and Neri & Hu, and an immersive sustainability exhibition spearheaded by none other than David Rockwell.

Little details tend to catch Monica Khemsurov’s eye—a skill she has flexed for the past 15 years as co-founder, with Jill Singer, of the popular design publication Sight Unseen. The nature of her work means exploring and unearthing design treasures in far-flung places, especially in Europe, where she takes a particular liking to 20th-century Art Deco and Modernist buildings in Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Scandinavia. Lately, she found herself fixated on the boldly sculptural handcrafted glass and metal hardware adorning the doors of these timeworn buildings. At the same time, she realized the hardware market skews commercial and mass-manufactured—and noticed designers posting fun tchotchkes online that could function as hardware, but didn’t have a dedicated commercial outlet.

So she decided to launch Petra, an online showroom for artistic hardware fabricated by the visionary designers often published in Sight Unseen. The collection represents select existing boutique lines and newly commissioned works by independent designers, all for sale to consumers and trade professionals. On offer are cabinet knobs, drawer pulls, door handles, switch plates, appliance handles, curtain tiebacks, and towel bars imbued with the flair and signature of their designers, making for obvious statement pieces that can effortlessly add personality to drab furnishings. “There are so many things hardware makes better,” Khemsurov tells Surface. Plus, because these are mostly small-batch pieces by independent design studios, “you can trust they’re really well-made.”

A pioneering graphic designer, classically trained ballet dancer, and landscape architect, Stauffacher Solomon barrelled through red tape and glass ceilings to carve an outsize legacy for herself in these disciplines and more. Last week, she died at the age of 95. Shortly after she was born, in 1928, her aptitude for art and ballet became clear. At the age of 14, she earned a scholarship to what would later become the San Francisco Art Institute; by 16, she was performing across the U.S. and Canada. Widowed by the age of 23, she studied graphic design at Switzerland’s Basel School of Design. The only American in the institution, let alone the only one to study under Armin Hoffmann, the multihyphenate took the U.S. by storm upon her return.

Stauffacher Solomon’s work on the near-mythic Sea Ranch development in Sonoma County would launch her into the art- and design-world stratosphere, where she would remain. Thanks to her, the interiors of the unassuming Sea Ranch Athletic Club—whose exterior very nearly blends into the whispering sea grass surrounding it—became a national architectural marvel. Drawing from her Swiss education, Stauffacher Solomon unleashed a vision of bold primary colors, curvilinear forms, high-contrast color theory, and even snippets of text as a brilliant foil to the development’s unassuming exterior. As a pioneer of the supergraphics movement, Stauffacher Solomon’s work would go on view at SFMOMA, the Whitney, the Venice Biennale, the Walker Art Center, and immortalized in Rizzoli art books.

Last week, an intimate group of design-world notables gathered in Manhattan to raise a glass to Backdrop’s inaugural wallpaper collection with artist and Ash creative director Xavier Donnelly. Hosted by Donnelly and Backdrop co-founder Natalie Ebel, the evening transformed a quaint Tribeca loft into an immersive journey inside the collection thanks to the murals draped inside depicting scenes of Italian landmarks and antiquity. Surrounded by those serene visuals, guests enjoyed a family-style Roman-inspired menu by Danny Newburg of Joint Venture and took shots out of a Limoncello ice luge.

When was it? May 8

Where was it? Tribeca, New York

Who was there? Sally Breer, Darren Jett, Oliver Haslegrave, Andy Baraghani, Anton Anger, Alan Eckstein, Mélanie Masarin, Ari Heckman, Billal Taright.

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Wolf-Gordon is an American design brand dedicated to enabling the creation of outstanding interiors. Founded in 1967 as a wallcovering resource, the high-performing product line now includes upholstery textiles, RAMPART wall protection, and Wink dry-erase surfaces.

Surface Says: The level of artistry and craftsmanship that Wolf-Gordon brings to every textile is remarkable for a machine-made fabric. Its artist collaborations, including Aliki van der Kruijs, Mae Engelgeer, and Frank Tjepkema, bring mastery to each bespoke design.

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