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History of the Apple Logo

Posted by pudge on from the friday-fun dept.

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.

10 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Reference to Alan Turing ? by sl956 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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).

    1. Re:Reference to Alan Turing ? by imperator_mundi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ït could also be a reference to Snowhite ; )

    2. Re:Reference to Alan Turing ? by John+Harrison · · Score: 3, Insightful
      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.

      --
      Lasers Controlled Games!
  2. The DogCow by fulldecent · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    --

    -- I was raised on the command line, bitch

  3. This doesn't make sense by elliotj · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "... 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.

    1. Re:This doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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

  4. Any sites for history of... by qurob · · Score: 3, Interesting


    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?

  5. IBM Logo by vitaflo · · Score: 5, Informative

    "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.

  6. Font is changing also by Apotsy · · Score: 3, Informative
    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.

    --
    Free Hans!
  7. Re:Decals by mttlg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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...