MacBook Pro Schematics
The beautiful and intricate interiors of the new 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pros are brought to life in this collection of schematic wallpapers.
Introducing the MacBook Pro Schematic Wallpapers, by far the most ambitious wallpapers I've produced to date! When I took on this project, I had no idea it would end up being as complicated & time-consuming as it ultimately ended up being. And thank goodness for that, because had I known, there's no way I would have ever signed up to make these in the first place.
The birth of these wallpapers started shortly after I completed the wallpapers for the iPhone 13. I remember sitting back, pleased with what I had created. Only a few moments had passed before an idea formed in my brain: 'what if I made schematics for the new MacBook Pros?'
At first, I ignored the thought - I had neither the time, energy, or skill for such an undertaking. I believed I had promptly laid that thought to rest, but I kept going back and contemplating it, fascinated with the idea. Internally, the new MacBook Pros were breathtaking machines, and I wanted a way to showcase their exceptional capabilities & feat of engineering.
The centrepieces of this collection are the stunning M1 Pro (shown on the Silver 14-inch Pro) & M1 Max (shown on 16-inch Space Gray Pro) wallpapers.
The Process
The schematics for the iPhone 13 & iPhone 12 pale compared to the complexity of the 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pros designs. Whereas the iPhone wallpapers were composed of some 400ish individual parts, the 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pro schematics consist of 3,485 & 3,624 parts, respectively. Over a thousand unique components were drafted by hand, layered, and methodically positioned in the process of creating these designs.
Like I said, at first, I didn't think I had the chops for taking on a wallpaper of this size and scope. There were not only an excessive number of components, but many of the shapes and parts were unlike anything I had done previously. Take the fans on the new MacBook Pros, for example. Creating that piece alone took several hours because I needed to learn and experiment with numerous techniques & iterations for combining, layering, and rotating vector shapes to make the final product. Easy if you know what you're doing, but when you start with very little understanding as I had, the task is considerably more challenging.
Each fan on the MacBook Pros is composed of 90 different components.
Whereas some components, like the fan, had a significant learning curve, others were downright monotonous. Not only did I create dozens of unique chips for these wallpapers, but I also needed to duplicate & arrange them thousands upon thousands of times.
Constructing and placing all the circuits for these wallpapers was a test in withstanding monotony.
After I had created the schematic for the 14-inch model, I was back to the drawing board to create the 16-inch model. When making the Pro & Pro Max iPhone Schematics, I learned that the differences between the two devices weren't just a matter of the pieces being a little bigger; the two phones had components that took on distinct forms and arrangements that required rebuilding multiple parts from scratch. As a result, every bit of creating the 16-inch took nearly as long as making 14-inch. And finally, the methods I learned and improved upon during the construction of both schematics required I go back and remodel multiple sections all over again. Long story short, it was an exhausting process. All told, I probably invested 40+ hours into this project.
Left: MacBook Pro 14-inch; Right: 16-inch.
These wallpapers are modelled off the images posted by iFixit as part of their teardown of the new 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pros. They're explicitly built for those displays, but they'll still look steller on other displays. I have entertained the idea of making schematics for Apple's other M1 Macs, including the 23.5-inch iMac or the M1 MacBook Air or Pros, but I don't yet have a timeline of when I might release those as of this post. Stay tuned.
Downloads
Eleven colorways of the MacBook Pro schematics are available for both the 14 & 16-inch wallpapers, with the plan to release more versions at a future date.
14-Inch MacBook Pro
16-Inch MacBook Pro
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