History of the Apple Logo

usermilk writes "There is a great article on the history of the Apple logo running at MacNYT.dk." The story's been translated into English, so no worries.

Comments

Lingua Franca

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank god it's been translated. I'd hate to have to learn another language. I was quite concerned at having to be exposed to the kraut culture -- though I do like their kuchen and sauerkraut, not to mention the scrumptious history of beer and nadine jensen.

I love being able to be an ignorant English speaker.

Fucking eh!

Re:Lingua Franca

[Anonymous Coward]

Are there many krauts in Denmark do you think?

Re:Lingua Franca

[Yarn]

Some more right wing danes are/were lobbying to make it harder for germans to buy property in .dk, so I'd imagine that there are some.

Re:Lingua Franca

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously my ignorance knows no bounds. I'm so fucking usian that I just lump all the germanic countries into the kraut category -- swedes, norwegians, icelandic, danes, dutch, etc....if it's a germanic root, they're krauts to me.

however, I really do think that the danish women are some serious fucking hotties.

Re:Lingua Franca

[yggdrazil]

English is germanic language. Seems you are not only ignorant USian, but a kraut too (according to your own definition).

Re:Lingua Franca

[simonravenson]

um, you show yourself to be ignorant yourself. most of the english language's words are from french; any word over one syllable is from norman french -- beef, boeuf; pork, porc - are some of the exceptions (there are others). and there are many other words that have been adopted from other languages -- arabic, the various celtic languages, french (as mentioned), hindic, african languages esp. swahili, and many many others. this is total nitpicking, but ignorance should be cleared up.

Reference to Alan Turing ?

[sl956]

A rainbow apple bitten into : the reference to Alan Turing seems obvious.
(as you probably know it, Alan Turing committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide).

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[imperator_mundi]

Ït could also be a reference to Snowhite ; )

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[John Harrison]

It could also be a reference to Snowhite ; )

or the forbidden fruit.

There are a number of ways to see this. I think that is part of why it was picked. To say, "obviously they meant Turing and that is the only thing they meant" is silly. The most direct symbolism that can be gleaned from the article is the reference to Newton, which made up the original logo.

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[Laplace]

And Alan Turing was gay, right? The rainbow apple. A reference to a guy who killed himself because he was gay.

Sometime people just look for coincidences, and assume that they mean something.

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Except the rainbow flag did not exist as a symbol for the gay community until 1978, a year after the Apple ][ shipped (obviously bearing the rainbow logo).

If Apple was using colour as a nod to Turing's sexuality, they would have patterned it after the symbol of the day, a pink triangle.

Most historical accounts say that the "rainbow" (notice it's not a true rainbow like the flag) was a request of Steve Jobs who wanted to highlight the Apple ]['s new colour capabilities.

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[jcr]

And Alan Turing was gay, right? The rainbow apple. A reference to a guy who killed himself because he was gay.

Turing killed himself to escape the vicious oppression heaped on him by British authorities of the time.

It makes me very sad to think of the further contributions this great man could have made if his life hadn't been so short.

-jcr

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[BitGeek]

He was the "Forbidden fruit"-- the reason he killed himself was he was being prosecuted by britian for his homosexuality.

This after he saved won the war for them. Or at least, he may not have won the war, but if he hadn't been there, they most certainly would have lost.

The sad truth is human rights still aren't respected there or here.

But this has nothing to do with the apple logo- turing didn't inspire it.

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[Laplace]

Turing killed himself to escape the vicious oppression heaped on him by British authorities of the time.

Because he was gay. The government was forcing him into treatment programs and giving him all sorts of shitty therapy. I'm well aware of the history, but yes my wording was a bit shallow.

Re:Reference to Alan Turing ?

[DavidRavenMoon]

A rainbow apple bitten into

The bite was supposed to make it look less like a tomato, and it signified knowledge, as in Eden.

Also the Apple I went for a list price of $666!

No reference to Alan Turing

[wilton]

I was always led to believe that the bite of the apple was in homage to Alan Turing.(brief summary half way fown page).

Re:No reference to Alan Turing

[MaxVlast]

That is quite possibly the dumbest, most useless, most incorrect website I've ever seen. And it's ugly. Wow. The things people see fit to put in the Internet.

The DogCow

[fulldecent]

On a related note, the full history of the dogcow can be seen in Apple's tech support

This doesn't make sense

[elliotj]

"... Steve Jobs in April 1977 [4] asked Rob Janoff, art director of the advertising company Regis McKenna Advertising, to design a new logo. The advertising company Regis McKenna, wasn't picked by coincidence to design the new logo. This company had helped for example Compaq, America Online, Intel and other computer companies through their early years [5]."

Really? So Apple selected Regis McKenna in April 1977 because of the work they had done for AOL and Compaq?

That's strange because the AOL website says it was founded in 1985.
And the Compaq (now HP) site claims that Compaq was founded in the 1980s.

I know Steve Jobs has a good eye for the future, but I suspect he didn't choose Regis McKenna based on the good work they would do in years to come.

I know this is a cute piece, but the guy who did it just read a couple of Apple biographies and slapped it together with some graphics. It just bugs me when misinformation like this spreads across the Internet.

Re:This doesn't make sense

[erasmus_]

Keep in mind that the article was translated, so before you bash the author, I think you should find someone who speaks Danish and can verify the translation. The more likely explanation of that passage is that Apple picked the company, who would eventually help such companies as Compaq, etc.

I'm not sure why you're bashing the article, as the research that he did seems pretty thorough, and not just slapped together. Many of the shots in it are taken specifically for the article, so this isn't the case of someone doing a Google Image search and putting the results in chronological order.

Of most interest to me was the very original "old-school" India ink logo, with Newton pictured. It makes it very interesting to see that it wasn't until much later that they were able to make a product named after the person who inspired the name. I wonder if they had that same poem anywhere in the Newton documentation, would've been neat.

Re:This doesn't make sense

[Anonymous Coward]

That is right. The danish text says this:

It wasn't a coincidence that the commerial agency, Regis McKenna, was picked to design the new logo. McKenna have, amongst others, helped design logos for Compaq, America Online, Intel and other computer companies during recent years.

So clearly, the original author didnt mean that Jobs is a Psychic :)

BoeManE

Re:This doesn't make sense

[Kikaid.]

I'm not sure why you're bashing the article, as the research that he did seems pretty thorough, and not just slapped together.

Well... I looked at the references the article lists and there are only 3 books. There have been a lot more than 3 books published about the history of Apple. Relying on mostly web-based articles doesn't constitute integrity to me, and I think the guy is bashing this article because he feels (as many of us do) that the last thing the web needs is more half-assed, hack "journalism".

Re:This doesn't make sense

[kalidasa]

I wonder if they had that same poem anywhere in the Newton documentation, would've been neat.

Same line (or passage) from the poem, you mean. The entire Prelude is longer than the Newton Documention tout court; it's probably about half the size of the entire LDP.

Re:This doesn't make sense

[bcwengerter]

have helped = perfect
had helped = pluperfect

Somehow, it's not surprising that verb tenses could get confused like this in translation. Lighten up a little.

"...Me fail English? That's unpossible..."

:-)

Re:This doesn't make sense

[Lars T.]

You have the misconception that books are any more factual than the web just because they are books, that something in print must be true. Not so.

Re:This doesn't make sense

[Kikaid.]

The difference between books and whats posted on the web is that published books go through a process of editors and fact checkers, where anyone who knows HTML can publish on the web. You can publish out right lies on the web and no one will stop you. Books are usually at the very least reviewd by critics. Granted a lot of history has been inaccurate due to misinformed authors, but to list 10 sources of which 7 are websites (that could possibly be hobbist websites) is not really concise. Also the list did not contain any interviews the author might have done. A more responsible approach would have been to read evey book out there and amalgamate some conclusion.

Re:This doesn't make sense

[Lars T.]

[...]but to list 10 sources of which 7 are websites (that could possibly be hobbist websites) is not really concise. Also the list did not contain any interviews the author might have done. A more responsible approach would have been to read evey book out there and amalgamate some conclusion.

Of the six (not seven) websites

1. - one is the poem mentioned (straight from a book, I guess).
2. 
   - one is the website of the McKenna Group, talking about who Regis McKenna, Inc. worked for (incl. Apple and all others mentioned - how can a book be more factual?)
   - one (referenced three times) is a webpage from somebody who worked at Regis McKenna, Inc. - IOW an eye-witness account. Again, how would a book be more factual?
   - one links to the image of an Apple add.
   - one basically is just a page that lets you download Apple Garamond - really usefull in a book.
   - the last is a page from AppleInsider about the Apple rebranding - again, putting that in a book would not make it any truer nor falser.

Any sites for history of...

[qurob]

I really enjoy reading the history of the big computer companies. The battles in the 80's, rags to riches and back to rags stories of Borland, WordPerfect...Early days of Apple, Microsoft...

Any other good computer history sites?

Decals

[Petronius]

Too bad there isn't a picture of the early Apple decals that came in the box with each computer. I remember wanting to buy an Apple ][ so badly to be able to have the decal on the back of our car!
the glory days...

Re:Decals

[MaxVlast]

You still get the modern white ones with a new Mac.

Re:Decals

[longbottle]

Do what I did... buy a used older mac from a stupid user (I got a Performa 475 for five bucks!) and get the decal they never bothered to use. (grin)

Re:Decals

[mttlg]

You mean the sticky kind that said "Apple Computer inc." at the bottom and came in different sizes? I've got a stack of those around here somewhere, I could put some pictures of them up if you want. The more recent multi-colored non-sticky kind were available for free for a while from a promotional material order form on Apple's web site, but my second shipment never made it...

Re:Remember the rhyme

[Alan Partridge]

you'll be first against the wall when the Islamic revolution comes you fool

IBM Logo

[vitaflo]

"the stripes in the apple logo plays on the comparison with IBM, that also uses a striped logo"

What's interesting is why the IBM logo uses stripes. It used to be solid, but was changed because it looked to "dominant". IBM being very dominant back then, believed that adding the negative space lightened up the logo and made them look less threatening (if you see it next to the old solid logo this is very much the case).

What's more interesting is that Paul Rand, who designed the IBM logo (along w/ the logo's for UPS, ABC, Westinghouse, etc, and who is regarded as perhaps the greatest graphic designer of all time) was commissioned later by Steve Jobs himself to create the logo for NeXT Computers. Rand was paid an astonishing $100,000 for this logo (the most ever for a logo at that time I believe), and in his presentation of his idea he simply handed Jobs a 52 page booklet and did not say a word. Jobs fell in love with the new logo immediately.

Font is changing also

[Apotsy]

The long-time standard Apple font, Apple Garamond (which is really just Adobe Garamond Light squeezed to 80% of its normal width) seems to be getting phased out, too.

Just look at the text used in all the eMac marketing materials. Instead of being in the usual Apple Garamond, it is in a font that resembles Adobe Myriad. That's quite a departure from the classic look Apple has always used.

Re:Font is changing also

[sg3000]

Maybe they're going to adopt a second font.

- Apple Garamond for copy and other places you'd use a serif font
- Myriad for product materials and accent text where a sans serif font is more appropriate.

It's not unusual for companies to adopt multiple corporate fonts for different purposes. However, if Apple's getting rid of Garamond completely, then I'd be a little disappointed; Garamond has always given their stuff a classy look. Myriad looks modern and trendy, which makes sense when putting together the materials for their products.

What's interesting is that some of their product pages have been updated to include Myriad and some haven't. The newer or recently updated products like the eMac, iPod, and Power Mac have the new font, while the iBook and PowerBook have the old. Comparing the two, I think the newer product pages using Myriad look a little fresher.

Re:Font is changing also

[Duck_Taffy]

I think it would be inconsistent of them to use Myriad, since they use Lucida Grande for the display font in Mac OS X. Although I did notice that the font that they're using for the tabs on the web site looks a bit more angular than Lucida, much more like Futura to me, although I'm not familiar with Myriad, so that my be it.

Why is apple named apple?

[Anonymous Coward]

This article says they don't know why apple is called apple.

I read on the internet someplace else that apples were Jobs' favorite fruit.

from woz himself

[brarrr]

I saw a video of woz saying that the name Apple was chosen because it came before Atari in the phone book.

He either worked there or had a rivalry with them over something, whatever the case the name came about with that in mind.

Re:from woz himself

[Anonymous Coward]

well woz may of been in a video saying that, but also steve says it in the "history of apple" corporate tape... steve says rather slyly, "and it put us ahead of atari in the phonebook"...

Re:from woz himself

[DavidRavenMoon]

I saw a video of woz saying that the name Apple was chosen because it came before Atari in the phone book.

He either worked there or had a rivalry with them over something, whatever the case the name came about with that in mind.

Jobs worked for Atari. He was one of the first 50 employees. In fact Jobs worked on the game Pong. Later he was commissioned to create the game breakout, but was in over his head, so he called Woz in to help.

Woz designed a circuit so brilliant that no one at Atari could figure it out, so it had to be redesigned before it shipped.

After the game was delivered, Jobs called Woz and said there was a problem getting paid, but he finally wrote Woz a check for $350, saying that if Woz could design the circuit was fewer than 50 chips (and Woz got it down to 42), Jobs would get paid $700 and split it with Woz.

Later on Woz found out they paid Jobs $5,000!

Woz was working for HP and didn't want to leave his job to sell the Apple I, so since Jobs worked for Atari they showed it to Al Alcorn at Atari. Atari thought it was great, but was busy selling home Pong games.

Not quite..

[Nomad37]

According to Frank Rose, in his book West of Eden, the End of Innocence at Apple Computer, it was the Macintosh product range that was named after Jobs' favourite type of apple.

Re:Not quite..

[Anonymous Coward]

It was Jef Raskin that said "I named project after my favorite eat'in apple".

Sadie Plant bullshit

[fm6]

The only source for any of this is some baseless speculation by the "Digital Artist" Sadie Plant. Even if Turing's death dose came from that stupid apple (no actual evidence of that), it's hard to believe that anybody would name a new company on the basis of such a depressing story!

And where does this "forgot to wash his hands after an experiment" come from? Turing was a mathematician!

Well, maybe if I took as much Ecstasy as Ms. Plant does, this would make sense.

WSB

[commodoresloat]

no doubt. the apple is obviously a reference to William S. Burroughs' deadly game of William Tell with his wife. "Put the apple on your head, honey..."