Apple’s Spinning Wheel Of Death Transforms Into A Wilson Tennis Ball With This Unexpected Collab

You might not know David Delahunty, but if you’re a designer, you’ll know him by his IG account ‘designershumour’. The biggest design meme account on social media, Delahunty has a way of finding humor in every aspect of a designer’s creative line of work, from client woes to just how uniquely designers tend to look at the world around them. When Delahunty isn’t creating humorous content, he’s concocting creative ideas on his personal account – like this tennis ball inspired by Apple’s ‘frozen computer’ rainbow ball.

Just like Windows has the Blue Screen Of Death, Apple has the Spinning Wheel Of Death – a rotating rainbow-colored beach ball that replaces your cursor every time your MacBook or Mac slows down or crashes. Despite its colorful appearance, it’s universally disliked because of what it represents – a laggy or crashed computer – but Delahunty decided to give the icon an upgrade. Meet the Wilson x Apple Tennis Ball – an unofficial, AI-generated ball that’s as gorgeous as it’s different.

Designer: David Delahunty

Made for a game of tennis, this ball aims at grabbing the eye while playing on a court. While most tennis balls are either neon green or deep red, this one has 8 swatches with 6 colors, creating a blurry rainbow as the ball moves across the court. With tennis balls, the point of the ball’s bright color has always been to enhance visibility – not just for players but also for the referee, the audience, and the camera. A rainbow-colored ball would arguably be a lot more eye-catching in theory, although that’s yet to be tested as a practical application.

The fuzzy ball is purely an AI rendition of what would otherwise be a gorgeous collab between Apple and Wilson. Although there’s really no overlap between their audiences, Apple’s been slowly (but surely) infiltrating the entertainment space with its billion-dollar deal with the NFL, a working relationship with Messi and his Inter-Miami football club, as well as a successful sports-comedy TV show in Ted Lasso. There might not be a direct link between Apple and Wilson, but there are areas where they would thrive as co-collaborators.

It’s a creative branding exercise, although I’m not entirely sure how this would affect the ball’s performance on the court. Even then, imagine if other brands with spherical logos had collaborated with Wilson to create unique tennis balls? I’d totally love a Google Chrome ball, an Xbox ball, a Target ball, a Volkswagen ball, and perhaps… just perhaps, a Starbucks ball!