An interview with the designer of the Apple computer logo
Ivan Raszl of Creative Bits recently posted a fascinating interview with Rob Janoff, the guy who created the “original” logo for Apple Computer, Inc.
By “original,” we mean the one you think of when you think of an old-school Apple logo. Namely, this one:
But, of course, that’s the first thing we learned in this interview. Apple actually had a logo before that one:
Pretty funky, no? Reminds us of the old, tabloid-style Rolling Stone magazine. Definitely a product of the mid-1970s. Here it is embedded in an old magazine ad from 1976:
Janoff says about that older piece:
It was a logo done by Ron Wayne who was a very brief partner of the two Steves early on. He later took a buy-out, because he was a little concerned about the financial obligations he might have. He had a young family and the other guys didn’t. Ron did a pen and ink drawing of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an Apple tree with a poem all around the border. And, I think when Steve Jobs started to get serious about the Apple II and getting a prototype for the design of the shell he realized that logo would not do. So he needed a new logo.
So in 1977 — a full seven years before the Mac was introduced — Janoff came up with the rainbow Apple we all came to know and love so long ago.
The really funny thing was the only direction we got from Steve Jobs is: “don’t make it cute”.
…We presented two versions of the logo. One with and one without the bite. Just in case he thought the bite was too cute. Fortunately he went with the one that gave it the most personality with the bite.
Raszl asks Janoff about the symbolism of the bite. Some say it represents the biblical Eve taking a bite out of the apple of knowledge. Others attribute other meanings to the missing mouthful. Janoff admits:
But I’ll tell you. I designed it with a bite for scale, so people get that it was an apple not a cherry.
…It was after I designed it, that my creative director told me: “Well you know, there is a computer term called byte”. And I was like: “You’re kidding!”
There’s much more there, including Janoff’s take on the subsequent revisions Apple has made to his work:
Top row: Janoff’s original verison and the monochrome
version Apple still uses from time to time. Bottom row:
The “aqua” version used from 2001 to 2003 and the
current “glass” version used for the past six years.
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It’s great stuff. Find the whole interview here.
Thanks to graphics guru Karl Gude for the tip via Twitter.
By the way, you can buy lots of cool items featuring the old Apple logo at The Missing Bite.