Leopard as a Velvet Painting

We're all excited about this week's release of Mac OS 10.5, otherwise known as Leopard. The list of features is exhaustive, and among them are some heavy hitters like Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces and the all new Finder.

Far be it from me to rain on the parade, but one thing that's bothered me ever since screen shots of the new OS started leaking out onto the web has been the sudden arrival of the colour purple. Outer space is a theme prevalent in Leopard, which is cool, I like outer space, and it works so nicely with the Time Machine UI, but why, oh why, did Apple, who normally are so good at making seemingly simple yet important decisions about colour, choose purple as the colour of the gaseous clouds in its space themes?

Purple is everyone's least favorite colour, for one. Couple that with the way it makes space images look like velvet paintings, and you've got to wonder how this choice was made, and how it slipped past all the checks, including the eyes of Steve Jobs himself.

Green would have been a much better choice. Apple implements green a lot, particularly when it comes to lights indicating power activity. Green is much more calm, mysterious, and less on the nose than purple is in space.

Now, every time I see a screen shot like this:


Which just leaked out onto the interwebs tonight, I'm reminded of unicorns, waterfalls and all the other tacky things that the colour purple swirling in the background so aptly lends itself to.