What do you usually think of when you hear or see the name “Apple”? You probably must have thought of the half-bitten Apple Logo.
In this digital realm, the word “Apple” is more prone to symbolize the company rather than the fruit itself. You may be wondering what started this way of thinking! It is, after all, the power of marketing and effective branding.
A reporter once asked Jobs how he got the name “Apple” during a media conference in 1981. Steve Jobs replied that he liked eating apples very much. However, the underlying concept behind Apple is to show the public simplicity in the most sophisticated way possible, and that’s all there is to it.
The world’s renowned multinational technology company, Apple Inc.’s logo, is a “half-bitten apple.” It is among the most easily recognized logos globally, and it is a suitable sign for the corporation’s name behind the logo.
The company used of this logo and updated it multiple times during its three-decade existence. But where did this logo come from? Here is the history of the Apple logo to help readers understand how the logo developed.
On February 24, 1955, Steve Jobs, the founder of the Apple Computer Company, was born in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Carole Schieble and John Jandali. Paul and Clara Jobs reared him like their own child. He withdrew out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, citing a desire not to squander his parents’ wealth on a pointless degree.
Back in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley, he came across an old high school classmate, Steve Wozniak, who had been employed at Hewlett Packard Company, and at that time, was building his logic board. Steve Job’s friend’s invention, the Apple I, enthralled him. However, Hewlett Packard formally refused Wozniak’s concept, so in 1976, the two men, together with Ronald Wayne, co-founded Apple Computer Inc. They had their first headquarters in Jobs’ garage.
Ronald Wayne, who designed the initial Apple logo by hand, left the company just before its incorporation. He carried an 800-dollar paycheck with him, which would be worth around 72 billion dollars today.
The First-Ever Apple Logo
The current Apple logo was never the same or even remotely close to the original one. Ronald Wayne, the Apple co-founder, designed the original logo to reflect Newton’s law of gravity, prompted by a single apple. Even though it bore the name Apple, its original logo did not depict the literal structure of apple fruit.
Isaac Newton, the guy who redefined science with his findings on universal gravitation, was the first figure to identify the Apple Corporation. The design featured a phrase from a romantic English poet, William Wordsworth, which read, “Newton… a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought.” Wordsworth’s poem was printed on the sides of the logo.
The Rise of the Half-Bitten Apple
Unfortunately, their original logo did not continue for a very long time. Steve Jobs, who had several functions at Apple in the design company, decided to try something unique and something unusual for the company’s logo. He thought their first logo was too ancient, and it was impossible to generate an image on a tiny scale. The company considered the new logo to be in line with the current Apple machines that made an impression on the public.
Steve Jobs wanted to combine the company’s name and logo into a single entity. The famed CEO immediately hired Rob Janoff, a graphic designer, who produced the current classic and globally famous half-bitten apple logo. Jobs swiftly discarded the original Newton logo, and by the conclusion of the corporation’s first year, Apple’s newly-designed logo was recognized entirely and used.
Janoff’s first apple logo featured a rainbow spectrum, a reference to the company’s Apple II computer, the world’s first-ever computer that features a color display. The logo was launched just before the Apple II computer’s release. Janoff stated that there was no meaning or reason for the logo’s color arrangement, adding that Jobs requested green to be at the top as that is where you see the leaves.
Janoff said that the company initially added the small bite in the Apple logo to indicate that it symbolized an apple rather than a cherry tomato. This also allowed for a clever parallel between the words bite and byte, appropriate for a computer company.
Monochrome Logo
The company used this multi-colored logo for 22 years before Steve Jobs abolished it in 1997, less than a year since his return to the company. The Apple Company replaced the colored half-bitten apple logo into a new logo that ditched the multi-colored stripes in favor of a much more sophisticated monochromatic appearance that has evolved into a range of sizes and hues throughout the years. The general structure of the logo, on the other hand, has not been altered since its creation.
During the return of Steve Jobs to the company in 1997, the firm was losing a lot of money, and Jobs and his colleagues understood that they could use the Apple logo in their favor. If people recognize the Apple logo shape instantly, why not display it more prominently?
The company modified the logo and discarded the rainbow colors when Apple produced the Bondi Blue, their first-ever iMac. The reason for this was that the multi-colored logo clashed with the metal case of new iMac computers.
The first iMac was a sky-blue computer. So, the multi-colored logo would have looked funny, childish, and out of style. The logo was subsequently given a metallic sheen with embossing and used on several Apple products. The form of the logo remains untouched.
The logo is available in various colors depending on the product’s background. It can also be noticed that there were some color changes in between.
An Aqua-themed rendition of the logo was launched in 1999 and remained in use until 2003. Then the designer team developed a glass-themed version of the logo in 2007, which the company used until 2013.
According to Janoff, changes in the colors of the Apple logo every now and then are perfectly suitable for the company’s products. Each color and line used in the logo meets the brand’s goals and applies to present situations. Janoff claims that Steve Jobs was knowledgeable of the logo’s design and that the company has a solid industrial design team, as well as a graphic design team.
The Apple company now features a much more modernized, flat, and minimalistic Apple logo. The logo is primarily available in three colors: black, silver, and white. The millennial apple logo is currently among the world’s smoothest and most famous logos, on par with and perhaps more popular than the yellow arches of McDonald’s.
Steve Jobs’ determination to change the logo, hire Janoff, and go with a simple logo design, which is in the current trend and could have begun the flat and minimalistic logo craze, was yet another excellent move by the remarkable Apple founder. Steve Jobs desires that everyone at Apple Company “think differently.”
The Apple logo is pretty simple to understand. It is why Apple never includes details about their company’s name in their logo. Rob Janoff successfully provided Apple an image that is concise and influential, much to Steve Jobs’ satisfaction.