Concept designer Antonio De Rosa issued a slick new set of designs Thursday for what he’s calling “17 Pro Max: Thinnovation,” despite Apple’s legal department getting in his face a while back over some of his concepts looking “too real.” For the new one, he left out the word “iPhone” and used AI to help avoid copyright infringement, he said. And his passion for the work — and for Apple — outweighed his fear of retribution.
“Call me a fanboy, but I love these products and even the illusion to ‘work’ for any of those,” De Rosa told Cult of Mac. “It makes me feel happy. Maybe I can save them some headaches looking at my works; they could say ‘Naaa, this is ugly, let’s pass on [it].’ Who knows, maybe I’m helping to have less ugly phones.”
Antonio De Rosa iPhone homage: ’17 Pro Max’ concept design pictures Apple’s next top handset
Cult of Mac has written a lot about De Rosa and his ADR Studio — see the list of articles below — because his design concepts for possible Apple products are so well-executed and compelling. We even profiled the man and his computer gear in an interview we ran as a Setups post. But could there be any higher praise for his concepts than Apple’s legal department getting in his face? De Rosa maintains Apple’s contact with him, which we speculated might involve a folding iPhone design of his, amounted to one phone call and a couple of emails, with no substantive legal action.
Photo: ADR Studio
De Rosa emailed Cult of Mac this statement about the new work, which also appears with the work on his website, concerning a possible thin new iPhone 17 Pro Max with five cameras, an A19 Pro chip, new advanced functionality and five fresh colors:
“After receiving a phone call and emails from a lawyer of this tech giant, to be honest I was afraid continuing to create concept designs. Sure it was a great appreciation in a way, but I was unsure of the whole point: cui bono? What I tried to do in these years has been thinking out of the box. Sometimes it comes out beautifully, other times it resolves ugly … but I’ve always thrown in a huge amount of passion and respect. I wanted to try again to design something different, plausible and as much real as possible, using AI tools to avoid any … copyright infringement.”
Any new attention from Apple lawyers?
Introducing the #17ProMax | Thinnovation ✨— thinking outside the box. After calls and emails from a tech giant’s lawyer, I wondered: cui bono? But passion won. Check out the video and gallery at the link, where innovation meets respect for the craft.https://t.co/4WKHOQGems pic.twitter.com/2vBk662qnI
— Antonio De Rosa (@aderosa75) November 7, 2024
So has he heard from Apple on this new 17 Pro Max concept?
“Nope, nada, niet … Radio Silence,” De Rosa said in reply to that question. “I’ve just added some massive disclaimers to my Studio Portfolio page and some concepts they pointed out.”
And he elaborated a bit on how Apple’s past contact with him changed his practices for this concept. Some of it alters the presentation of the design rather than the actual design.
“In the past, I used music or some stock footage to complete our jobs. This time is all prompt engineering and 3D,” he said. “Even the music is AI-generated and the voice as well. The big work is to put seamlessly everything together, using the AI tools to streamline your workflow.”
Watch the ’17 Pro Max: Thinnovation’ video:
But he said he hasn’t changed much in his actual designs as a result of Apple’s contact with him. He reiterated how important the work is to him on a personal level.
“Concept design is a kind of ‘urgency’ for me, to avoid the stress of the daily job. It’s my relief valve,” he said.
And he’s not too worried about a negative reaction from Apple, either.
“It’s an homage, done with respect and passion. I’m not mocking anyone or [worse], offending someone,” he said. “I hope the audience could like it.”
Photo: ADR Studio
More on Cult of Mac about Antonio De Rosa and his Apple design concepts:
- Concept artist says Apple’s lawyers are playing nice … so far
- Designer’s Apple product concepts may look a little ‘too real’ [Updated]
- Designer dazzles with MacBook Pro MX1 concept [Setups]
- MacBook Folio concept smoothly merges laptop and tablet
- Marvelous iPhone 15 concept showcases sleek new design
- Retro-cool Apple Glass AR concept pays homage to Steve Jobs
- iPhone Studio? Concept mixes Mac Studio design with Apple’s handset.
