A Call for a Designer: Help Turn a 30-Year Apple Story Into a Definitive PDF Artefact

Over the past two months I’ve been writing what has quietly become the largest and most ambitious piece of Apple analysis I’ve ever undertaken.

Partly as a result of Apple’s ever faster spinning revolving door of key personnel, which just seems to be spinning ever-faster, every day.

And partly out of sheer sadness at watching my favourite company tearing itself to pieces.

It’s a long-form narrative tracing the 30-year arc from Copland, to NeXT, to Siri, to Gemini, and to what I argue is the slow but unmistakable collapse of this era’s strategic centre of gravity.

It’s part history, part autopsy, part personal reckoning after twenty-five years of following, analysing, and defending this company. Sadly the latter not being something I can honestly say I’ve felt doing much of late.

Whether readers agree with every conclusion is beside the point.

The piece is already provoking strong reactions from early readers who have seen sections in draft. I’ve expanded it not because I had to, but because of feedback wanting a more complete picture.

What began as a 3,000-word commentary has blossomed into a 20,000-word analysis on 30 years of Apple, From Amelio to Jobs to Cook, (and Ballmer) and back again, with illustrations of course.

It’s a barn-burner:

A deeply researched, historically grounded indictment of institutional amnesia and cultural drift at a company that once defined the future on a routine basis.

It’s needs to be something able to be used for reference, or printable. Something saveable. Something worthy of the content but ironically, as a print publisher, I recognise the need for help to do it justice. In fact, it’s my decades of experience as a publisher and editor, which has brought this need clearly into view.

Unlike Tim Cook, I don’t believe in “not invented here,” trying to do it all myself, and then delaying, iterating, and publishing something half finished and only half-coherent.

What I’m Looking For 👇

If you, or someone you know, has these skills:

• Expert at creating interactive PDFs (with active links, TOC, embedded media cards to my content and others’)
• A natural eye for editorial design (InDesign or equivalent)
• Exquisite page layout and typography skills
• Light illustration or visual system design skills
• Optional: Ebook export (EPUB) skills (a benefit, not a necessity)

Then I’d love to hear from you. I write for free. Now I need some help with what’s probably my most passionate and important work to-date (other perhaps, than predicting the 2008 crash, and providing a heads-up to the April 2025 collapse, a month earlier in March, just before AAPL plunged from $240 to $167).

The structure is finished, the flow natural. The headings are written and the content and media in place. It just needs converting to a beautiful PDF and Ebook with a quick reference tool, ToC, live index and search functions, and it’s done.

And unlike most things in 2025, although it would be simple and fast, given the historic perspective of this piece the design isn’t something I want to delegate to an AI tool.

This one needs a human touch.

I’m not seeking a corporate design agency or a transactional arrangement (unless you’ve an irresistible offer).

I’m looking for someone who gets the spirit of long-form tech analysis, who understands why a 30-year story about Apple deserves to be typeset properly, and who sees the value in both a reputational and creative sense in being attached to a piece that will have a very long half-life.

And of course your work will be fully credited because you’ll be collaborating on something that already has momentum and the story behind it, increasing velocity.

Why This Matters

This opus isn’t a rant, and it isn’t a blog post inflated to book length. It’s a structured, forensic piece of analysis that traces Apple’s cultural, architectural, and strategic missteps over three decades. It is also, bluntly, my own “divorce filing” after a 25-year relationship with AAPL, through a three-decade long lens.

Let’s create something “Insanely Great.” Because it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that.

🔔 Interested, or know someone who is? I run this without a paywall, and reaching out to collaborate is how I keep it that way.

💡 Reach out to me using the Confidential Drop Box form below. 👇

Confidential Drop Box

Made with Tally, the simplest way to create forms.

Tally Forms

👉 I’ll reach out personally, selectively, and with respect for your time and position, depending on the nature of your drop.

Lastly, a quick ask:

Please, share this on your social networks. From the post on the FYI site itself if you click through, you’ll see share buttons (or just share the URL), By social media or email, if you can help me, I’d be very grateful.

And a “Thanks,” for being with me on the journey so far.

Some of you have been sparring with me for twenty-plus years across different forums and eras. This is the natural culmination of that long conversation, and I don’t want you to miss it, or stand on the sidelines. Agree, disagree, argue… tell me I’m serving the main course or that my brain is out to lunch: that’s the whole point.

It’s peak critical thinking and that’s why you’re still here. If you’ve got a hand to lend to help with the final design, I’d value it.

Tommo_UK, Saturday 6th December 2025

© TOMMO.FYI 2025