The Wall Art Every Apple Fan Needs

We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.

When both Grid Studio and Xreart got in touch separately to send me their deconstructed Apple product wall art, I jumped at the chance.

I’d spotted examples of these dismantled and immortalised devices in the background of YouTube sets, and occasionally on banner ads. They intrigued me.

Sure, they looked cool, but could a deconstructed iPhone 4S really be considered ‘art’?

As it turns out – yes, it really can.

And it’s all because of a garden fence.

Celebrating industrial design

Apple is often knocked for putting design before function.

Sometimes, it is absolutely deserved. Hiding the charging port for the Magic Mouse on the base of the device is not only laughable, it renders the thing (and, by association, your entire computer) completely unusable when you suddenly need to charge it.

On a greater scale, the butterfly keyboard was an unmitigated disaster. It was horrible to type on and incapable of dealing with the crumbs, dust, and dirt that keyboards have successfully battled for decades.

Thankfully, Apple doesn’t make a habit of this. On the whole, the Apple industrial design team does a stunning job of combining beautiful design with pick-up-and-play usability.

The iPhone is the perfect example. It may not bend, fold, or do anything particularly interesting with its rectangular form, but it’s hard to ignore how good it feels in the hand compared to most of the competition. It’s a tough little beast, too; no matter how much I inadvertently try to destroy my iPhone 13 mini, it appears completely immune to any form of damage.

There are some less perfect examples. AirPods Max, for instance, are easily the best-looking and most premium-feeling pair of headphones I have. The design is simple yet elegant and results in a fit that most other brands could only dream of.

Unfortunately, the lack of a power button, high price, and that inherently stupid case spoil the party. Those unfathomable choices simply don’t live up to the brilliance of the AirPods Max design.

But focusing on Apple’s brilliant external design is missing the point entirely.

It’s what’s inside that counts

My G5 Mac was easily the best-looking desktop computer I’d owned, but I wasn’t prepared for what I’d find inside that aluminium casing.

After releasing the ludicrously simple mechanism that held the side panel in place, I gently lifted it from the tower case and peered inside.

I’d never seen anything quite so organised and tidy in my entire life. There wasn’t a loose cable in sight and everything was perfectly and conveniently located. It was functional, too. Need to swap out the hard drive? Just slide it out. Want to replace the RAM? It was as easy as it should be.

Compared to the PCs I’d built myself, it was a work of art. I almost felt guilty upgrading the RAM, like I was butchering someone’s lovingly-crafted painting.

This isn’t unusual for an Apple product. In fact, if you prise any of them open, you’ll find a similarly beautiful interior. It’s the stuff no one ever sees unless they decide to undertake some DIY maintenance on their iPhone.

It was Steve Jobs’ father, Paul, who lay at the heart of this desire to make the inside of a computer look just as good as the exterior.

While helping his dad build a new fence around their garden, Jobs was treated to a piece of fatherly advice that stuck with him forever.

“You’ve got to make the back of the fence, that nobody will see, just as good looking as the front of the fence,” Paul told his son. “Even though nobody will see it, you will know, and that will show that you’re dedicated to making something perfect.”

That’s why the inside of my G5 Mac looked so incredible, and it’s why immortalising these products is such a smart idea.

My Apple artwork

I have two pieces of deconstructed Apple wall art – an iPhone 4S and a first-generation Apple Watch.

Paired with one of my favourite Jobs quotes (“you can’t connect the dots looking forward…”), the dismantled iPhone reveals the relatively simple nature of its internals.

There’s the CPU (in this case, the A5), battery, tiny camera module, vibration motor, and the various buttons and audio paraphernalia that complete the device. There’s no magic – just a bunch of considerately designed and paired bits and bobs that made this phone a genuine computer replacement for many people.

The Apple Watch is equally revealing. As opposed to the iPhone’s voluminous battery, it’s the CPU within Apple’s first wearable that takes up most of the space. Clearly, that thing had quite a job on its hands.

It’s amazing to see how much technology is packed into so few components. When you consider what both of these devices are capable of, the miniaturisation of considerable computing power is a sight to behold.

Now, does anyone fancy immortalising a G5 for me?

Where to buy

I’ve been really impressed with both Grid Studio and Xreart. Their dismantled wall art extends beyond Apple stuff, too (including Gameboys, Blackberrys, and Nokia phones), and Xreart even provides the templates for you to create your own immortalised gadgets if you wish.

Check them out below:

• Shop disassembled wall art at Grid Studio
• Shop disassembled wall art at Xreart (grab 10% off with code MARKELLIS820)

This post includes affiliate links.