According to Macworld, Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs is slated to be honored with the Jim Henson Celebration Honor, an annual award given out by the Jim Henson Company to acknowledge people who “reflect the core values and philosophy of the legendary Jim Henson and the company he founded.” Core values like loving cookies, bottlecaps, pigeons and monsters, one hopes.
According to the announcement, Jim Henson feels that the honor should go to an individual, organization or product that makes the world a better place by inspiring people to celebrate life. A co-founder of Apple, Jobs has led the company and the creation of its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, iPod media player, iTunes media store and Mac computers.”
Jim Henson’s daughter and current CEO Lisa Henson explained the decision further: “Steve Jobs has continuously broken new ground with technologies that allow existing media in all forms to be easily enjoyed and also by providing fantastic tools for artists, photographers, musicians and filmmakers of all skill levels.”
In some ways, it seems a bit strange — Steve Jobs’ flavor of creativity and imagination is vastly different than the messy, colorful and googly-eyed insanity of the Muppet Workshop — but Henson himself was an model for Apple’s 1997 “Think Different” campaign. Perhaps the difference between the two individualist imaginers isn’t so different as it first appears after all.
