Back to the Future with Illustrator 88

Pass the banana clips and fire up Less Than Zero: It’s time to visit the late 80’s with the promotional video for Adobe Illustrator 88.  It’s fun to see all that was possible even then, and to hear that the marketing message of “do more, and more easily, so you can focus on being creative” is eternal.  Now I shudder at visions of a besweatered James Spader dropping the French curves and grabbing a mouse.  [Via]

The timing is kind of spooky: for nearly a year I’ve been meaning to upload a copy of the John Warnock-hosted VHS tape that shipped in the Illustrator 1.0 box, and just last week I got serious about doing so.  Of the work Dr. Warnock says, “That video demo tape was shot live, with no editing. We didn’t have video production
tools at that time, and we didn’t want to pay for a professional to do it, so I did the
demonstration.”  Pretty cool that the company co-founder and CEO was not only one of four names on the product splash screen, but also the main demo man.  (“Everyone sweeps the floor around here,” said Chuck Geschke of that time.)

This posting lights a fire under me, so look for the Warnock video soon. [Interim bonus retro fun: the 1987 Apple Knowledge Navigator video. Everything old is new again, and self-serious yuppies will always be with us.]

0 thoughts on “Back to the Future with Illustrator 88

  1. I need to create illutrtor88 files to run an old vinyl cutting program Signcut that only imports 88 files. I need to convert my illistrator file(s) on my newer Illustrator version that dose not offer an Illustrator88 save option. Can you help or know where i can buy 88 or an illustrator porgram that is old enough to still have an illustrator88 save option?
    Please email thanks much
    Jay
    [Folks here don’t seem to know what version of AI dropped support for the v88 format, but I’m told “SignCut has plugins on their website for Illustrator — that allow you to export artwork to use with the program.” –J.]

    1. I have Illustrator 88 (v 1.9.5 — 2 floppy disks- Mac) including User Guide (book) and Color Guide Requires Mac Plus; Mac SE with hard drive; Mac II with hard drive or 2 800K drives; Apples system software 4.2 or later; includes & registration number. (no video, no tutorial). RSVP for more info.

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