Design truths revealed by the Apple logo
by Matt Seward on May 27, 2010
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Design can often acquire meaning never considered during the creative process. In this talk developed for Ignite Leeds (part of the LSX2010 web festival) I look at Rob Janoff's most famous creation, th...
Design can often acquire meaning never considered during the creative process. In this talk developed for Ignite Leeds (part of the LSX2010 web festival) I look at Rob Janoff's most famous creation, the myths surrounding the logo and some "design truths" that the logo represents.
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2. So who is our hero? Is he Tom Selleck’s long lost brother? No. Is he Dickie Davies’ love child? No! This is Rob Janoff - unknown the world over. You may not recognise the name, you may not recognise the face...
3. ...but 1 month into a new job Rob created something many of you hold close to your hearts. You may even carry it on your person. This mustachioed maestro is one of my design heros because his story reveals what I believe to be some design truths.
4. Rob Janoff designed this: The Apple Logo. One of the world’s most recognisable and enduring symbols. From its first appearance the logo has been at the centre of debate over hidden references and meaning. Speculation it’s predecessor never encountered...
5. Because Janoff was the newbie he was given this freebie project and told to meet with a guy called Steve Jobs who was about to launch the Apple II - the 1st computer able to handle colour, the 1st “Home computer”.
6. Steve’s brief: “Don’t make it cute”. The brief may have been... well... brief, but Janoff clearly managed to develop an understanding of Apple and the customers they wanted to connect with, at least enough to produce a belting (and really cute) logo
7. Janoff faced internal opposition (back then printing in more than 2 colours was really expensive) but Jobs liked its uniqueness and so in April 1977 the Apple II launched (adorned with the new Apple identity), over the years it hasn’t really changed much
8. Quickly all sorts of theories sprang up about the meaning and messages being conveyed... what’s with the odd arrangement of the colours? They don’t match the rainbow. Why that dirty great big bite taken out of it? Some folks felt that the bite was a biblical reference...
9. A reference to Adam and Eve eating an Apple from the tree of knowledge i.e. Apple Computers provide access to unlimited knowledge, anyone who knows how that story pans out would realise that it is probably not a desirable association planned by the designer or client.
10. Others believed it was a clever reference to the computer term “byte”, I’ve even read a theory that it represents the indentation Newton’s head made in the Apple falling from a tree! The bite even plays a part in my favorite myth about the logo, but we’ll get to that later...
11. The real reason: to give the logo scale, avoiding confusion with a cherry or tomato. Janoff also really liked the fact that biting into an apple is a universally enjoyable experience we all share. So how about those multi-colored stripes?
12. Some claimed the colours were a salute to the hippy movement, some reckoned it was a reference to the colours in the old serial cables, other felt they were inspired by the resistor value colour code system.
13. More people felt the colours were inspired by the Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transexual movement of America and the reason for this association was due to Steve and Woz’s desire to salute Alan Turing the mathematical genius famed for building the machines that cracked German cyphers during WW2 and acknowledged by many as the father of computer science.
14. In the 50’s Turing was prosecuted for being homosexual, an imprisonable offense back then. Given his usefulness he was offered chemical castration as an alternative to prison. He later committed suicide by taking a bite from an apple laced with cyanide (allegedly, the apple was never actually tested)
15. But the colors were really inspired by the colour test screen on the Apple II. Rob knew they had to humanised what until then had been an inaccessible product. The order of the colours was simply to make the leaf green, simple.
16. But what has any of this got to do with Design Truths? Design Truth #1: “Sometimes design briefs can be pants! That’s why we call ‘em ‘briefs’”. We can’t expect, nor should we want clients to know exactly what they want or need. As designers we should love this truth.
17. Design Truth 2: “It takes hard work to make something look simple.” The consistency, quality and care that Apple apply to their logo’s reproduction (and everything they design) is immense, but the reward is that consumers care about it too.
18. Design Truth #3: “Good design inspires people to associate themselves with it.” Good design increases the possibility of something being seen or used. The more people associate with your design (care about it), the more meaning gets conferred. So meaning is a by-product of good design.
19. Design Truth #4: “Project value has little to do with the fee”. Designing something pro bono? $0. Brand valuation 32 years later? $15Bn (Interbrand’s evaluation). Getting to say “I made that”? $priceless! As designers we create and hope our creations flourish.
20. Design Truth #5: “Nobody remembers the designer”. Rob Janoff seems to be asked in every interview I’ve read or heard about how little he gets out of designing this logo and I really admire his attitude to this. I’ve been Matt Seward but by tomorrow you will have forgotten and maybe that makes me as cool as Rob Janoff!