The land of Mac believe

No computer product in the world gets the aesthetically astute purring the way Macs do. From the ultra-chic to the super-geek, it appears no-one can resist Apple's cutting-edge designs.

A cult has developed around the look of Apple computers, with multitudes of enthusiasts devoting hours of their time to creating new designs. It is not done for financial gain and few ever expect to see their work used. Designing Macs, it would seem, is its own reward.

The number of people indulging in this hobby is staggering. Kids rush home after school to get down to designing, businessmen have neglected companies to develop mock-Macs and there is even a university lecturer who gets his students to design new Apple hardware.

So why do Macs get people so excited? Marcus Conge, a 3D design teacher at the Rochester Institute Of Technology in New York, says designing Apple products makes his students feel cool. He said: 'I've never seen anyone go bonzo over vacuum cleaners like they do over Macs. It's the most popular product that my students work on because the designs are so forward-thinking and so different. They represent a freedom to design in any direction you wish.'

One of Conge's charges ended up working for Apple but for many Mac design enthusiasts, there is no obvious reward for their efforts.

Matt Weed, president of a graphic design company, ignored his business because he was so obsessed with his hobby. He spent weeks creating elaborate designs for Macintoshes while his staff kept the business afloat - yet he never had any intention of showing his work to Apple. He said: 'It would be offensive to [Apple]. It has a wonderful industrial design team and it doesn't need my help.'

Fortunately for Weed, his efforts were not completely wasted. The designs he posted on his company's website started generating significant traffic, which improved the site's position in Internet search-engine rankings while at the same time showing how many people were fascinated with these imaginary machines.

Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Van Parys is one such person. He runs a website called Apple Mock-ups, on which he archives as many make-believe Macs as he can find. Van Parys believes Apple's designs are beautiful and he is happy to spend his free time hunting out the latest fantasy products. He said: 'I devote a lot of time to collecting and displaying other people's designs, but I don't really expect to get anything out of it. I do this for a hobby and for no other reason.'

Every week, Van Parys's site has 1,500 visitors who see pictures of Macs that don't even exist. This kind of interest may seem odd to non-believers but Van Parys sums it up when he says: 'In the Mac world, nothing is strange, it's just innovative and different.'