After receiving an ominous message from an Apple lawyer, concept artist Antonio De Rosa is waiting to find out exactly how the company wants him to alter his photorealistic images depicting yet-to-be-released Apple products.

De Rosa said he wants to work with Apple to resolve the situation. But when asked what he thinks will happen if he not As he made changes to his Apple concept images, he sounded slightly intimidated by the powerful technology company.

“I don’t know,” De Rosa said in an email to Cult of the Mac, “but honestly, I don’t want to find out.”

Apple sends the concept designer the most beautiful nastygram ever!

De Rosa finds himself in the awkward position of having attracted the attention of one of the tech world’s most powerful players. It remains unclear what exactly caught the attention of Apple’s vaunted legal team – perhaps a recent model showing off a drool-worthy foldable iPhone? But being asked to make unspecified edits because some of De Rosa’s artwork looks “too real” certainly sounds troubling.

When an Apple lawyer contacted De Rosa earlier this week about adapting some of his Apple design concepts, the call came as quite a shock. Still, De Rosa said Cupertino has been nice so far. And that certainly sounds like every lawyer we know — until the lawsuit was filed.

It is unclear whether Apple has any legal recourse for its previous actions. Apple told De Rosa that it simply wanted to avoid confusing consumers.

A surprising call from Apple’s legal team

I received a call from an Apple lawyer asking me to adjust some of my concepts because they were considered too realistic. pic.twitter.com/e5PGOVT7tj

— Antonio De Rosa (@aderosa75) 15 August 2024

In a Wednesday post on X, De Rosa expressed his surprise at hearing from an Apple lawyer about his product models. “I received a call from an Apple lawyer asking me to adjust some of my concepts because they were considered too realistic,” De Rosa wrote. The image he attached shows his own shocked expression.

The news from Cupertino came as such a surprise to De Rosa that at first he himself could not believe it.

“I didn’t expect that: When the lawyer called and introduced himself on the phone, I think it was a joke,” he said Cult of the Mac.

The call was followed by the following message, which may be considered the nicest nasty letter ever from an Apple lawyer:

“Apple appreciates your creativity and enthusiasm for the company and has no objections to your website or design in principle, but there are certain pages/designs that Apple is concerned look too real and could actually confuse consumers,” the lawyer wrote. “Rather than requesting that you remove them entirely or make blanket changes, we would prefer to discuss the nuances of the problem and, ideally, find a reasonable solution that works for everyone.”

Apple concept artist wants to cooperate

Over the years, De Rosa has built up considerable success in developing cool Apple product concepts. Cult of the Mac has written extensively about De Rosa’s work, at least since 2012, and more recent articles also cover his ADR studio. (See the list of articles below.)

His design concepts for possible Apple products seem so well implemented and convincing that we even profiled the artist and his computer equipment in an interview that we published as a Setups article.

After getting over the shock, De Rosa made sure Cupertino expressed its willingness to cooperate. He declined to comment on which designs Apple had objected to or how the company was asking him to make changes.

“I declare my full willingness to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunication and am therefore waiting for the next steps,” he said Cult of the Mac.

He described Apple’s representatives as “really friendly” and “anything but aggressive,” and acknowledged that change seems inevitable.

“I understand that some measures need to be taken in the interest of customers,” De Rosa said.

Why Apple’s sudden interest?

In a roundabout way, there is no greater praise for De Rosa’s models than the fact that Apple’s legal department gets on his nerves.

“You know you’re on the right track when a legal team comes after you for being ‘too real’ haha,” joked one commenter on De Rosa’s X-post.

But that leaves us wondering: Why is Apple concerned about De Rosa’s work now? Could De Rosa be working on something too close to a real Apple product that is about to launch? After all, while Apple has been using product leakers like Think secretly In the past, the company has not typically looked specifically for concept designers. At least as far as we know.

In theory, Apple could be motivated to do something like this if it believes the designer is getting inside information, as some leakers do. Or perhaps Apple rightly believes De Rosa’s highly realistic renderings could confuse the public, as the lawyer’s note suggests.

It’s worth noting that one of his more recent designs shows a foldable iPhone Air (pictured at the top of this post). Regardless of what Apple’s rumored foldable iPhone might look like or be called, De Rosa’s depiction may be too close to reality for Cupertino.

Cult of the Mac asked Apple for comment on the situation. We will update this post if we receive a response.

Read more about Antonio De Rosa and his Apple concept art

Check out some of De Rosa’s amazing Apple concept designs: