How Apple Logo Became Truly MINIMAL and SIMPLE

There have been many interesting and complicated stories behind Apple logo but in reality,?Simplicity?was the key behind choosing “The Apple with a bite”.

In a press conference in 1981, Steve Jobs had said “I love apples and like to eat them. But the main idea behind Apple is to bring simplicity to the public in the most sophisticated way possible, and that’s it, nothing else.” “The fruit of creation, Apple. It was simple but strong.”

The first logo back in1976 was a complicated one in representation as well as thoughts. It had Isaac Newton sitting under a tree where apple fell. A quote from William Wordsworth’s poem was written on the frame of this image — “NEWTON… A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING THROUGH STRANGE SEAS OF THOUGHT…. ALONE”

But this logo did not last for long as it looked old fashioned, and it was difficult to reproduce it on computers.

And then, in 1977 , Rob Janoff was hired to create new logo for Apple computers. The logo created by Janoff was a Rainbow Apple with a bite.

Originally the logo had rainbow colors, but Jobs wanted green color at the top because the leaf was there, that’s why the sequence of colors is not as per rainbow.

The bite?was believed to symbolise knowledge and a reference to the computer term?byte and The rainbow spectrum?was a nod towards Apple’s computer Apple II which was the world’s first?computer with color display.

As Janoff describes, he created the “bite” in the logo so that people would know that it represented an apple, and not a cherry tomato. Did you know this ? If you think about it now , this is how a creative person thinks. He just wanted to be sure that it looks like?An Apple.

When Jean Louis Gassée (former apple executive) was asked about his thoughts on the Apple logo he answered:

“One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn’t dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy.”

There are many interesting stories behind Apple logo. I think it’s one of the most talked about logo. Surprisingly it’s one of the simplest logo too.

The story which I find the most interesting is about the theory that — Apple logo was a tribute to Alan Turing.

Alan Turing was an English mathematician, cryptoanalyst, computer scientist, philosopher, logician and theoretical biologists, who is often called the father of modern computers. During world war II he worked with government breaking enemies’ codes. It is said that the war was shortened by two years and millions of lives were saved due to his work. Alan Turing who has been acknowledged as one of the most innovative thinkers, died in 1954, as a criminal because he was a homosexual and it was a crime in those days in Britain. A half-eaten apple (laced with cyanide) was found by his side. This, not so fortunate end of Turing, connected him forever with Apple logo (with a bite). The rainbow color stripes further strengthened the Turing theory.

Its definitely interesting theory and will come across as believable one to most of us because of the logics given but it is just another story which is not true.

The rainbow Apple logo was used on various Apple products for more than 20 years until Jobs decided to change the logo again within first year of his return to Apple in 1997. The multi-colored Apple logo was replaced with a more modern monochromatic look which has been used in many sizes and colors since then.

In the monochromatic looks, the logo first took metallic look then glass and now it’s become flat. The evolution of Apple logo from a complicated hand drawn image to a modernized flat “minimal” logo is a great example of how the company changed not only its products but in same line the company logo too. Today Apple doesn’t have to write anything in its logo, the logo itself tells it all.

Why I wrote about this journey of Apple logo —A few days ago, my 4 year old son noticed apple logo with a bite on my phone, he laughed and said — “how funny is it , why this apple has a bite?”.I had never thought about it before. We accept most of good minimal logos easily in our life. But it was not his laughter which made me think about apple logo and write about it. It was what he said later one day — “Ma, where is your apple phone.” Do you get this now? I never had to tell him or teach him that its apple phone, this is how he knows it, this is how he calls it - "apple phone" , because its so simple and easily understood to a small child too.

Remember the words of Steve Jobs?

“I love apples and like to eat them. But the main idea behind Apple is to bring simplicity?to the public in the most sophisticated way possible, and that’s it, nothing else.” “The fruit of creation, Apple. It was simple but strong.”

Isn’t it simply “wow”?

What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts if anywhere my thoughts touched you or made you think a bit.