“Those experiences became a demonstration of a foundationally new way of telling stories,” Anderson said. “All the rules have changed.”

Apple’s technological evolution may be changing some rules, but for MAL, a few principles will always remain the same. The team learned those from Apple: the importance of experimentation, craft, emotional storytelling—and, above all, simplicity. 

“Clear and simple wins every time. Nobody is better at that than Apple. We try to match the excellence and experience of their communication in the same way people have that experience with their products,” Anderson said. “As an industry, we need to be better and faster at stripping away artifice and just trying to get to the heart of the matter.”