Apple is one of the world’s top consumer electronics manufacturers, whose products include smartphones and computers, as well as software and facilities for online services.
The current Apple logo was developed by Rob Janoff, a graphic designer known primarily for corporate logos and identities. The author of the concept was Steve Jobs. By the way, the original Apple logo was created by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne.
Meaning and history
The iconic Apple logo was introduced just one year after the company’s establishment and hasn’t changed at all since that time. It is one of the examples of brilliant branding in contemporary marketing history, which proves, that not everything has to follow the trends, but there are logos, which set them.
1976 — 1977
Though even such company as Apple started with the trial version of the logo, which was placed on their first computer. It was a classic and elegant badge surrounded by a smooth ribbon, where the “Apple Computer Co” lettering was placed. The inscription was executed in a bold serif typeface, which made its capital letters solid yet sophisticated. The badge itself depicted a very detailed image of Isaak Newton sitting under the apple tree with a book in his hands.
1977 — 1998
The iconic bitten Apple logo was designed by Rob Janoff in 1977. It was a clean and perfectly balanced image, with a horizontal rainbow pattern. The representation of knowledge, diversity, creativity, and inspiration, this logo remained untouched until now and is truly one of the most recognizable visual identities in history. The color palette of the Apple icon stayed rainbow until 1998.
1998 — Today
The Apple logo was renewed in 1998, and this is when the rainbow version was replaced by its monochrome twin. The black bitten Apple was used by the brand for several years but became official only after the release of iMac. Today the black icon on a white background is a symbol of style and technologies, a synonym for quality and excellence.
Symbol
Later, Jobs confessed that he had gone on a fruitarian diet and visited an apple farm, and it was then that the idea came to him. Rob Janoff, a graphic designer, suggested an image of an apple with a “bite”, so that it would not be confused with other fruits.
Logo meaning
There is also more about the ‘bite’ taken out of the apple than just distinction from a cherry or any other fruit. Indeed, the idea goes back to the time of Adam and Eve, who bit from the apple of knowledge. Thus, the image suggests human thirst for knowledge, and using Apple products would help people get knowledge and quench it. Also, the ‘bite’ symbolically puns with ‘byte’ – the unit of digital data.
Who “bit” the emblem?
When Rob Jan first met Steve Jobs in 1977, the Apple company was less than one year old. The process of creating the Apple emblem took just a couple of weeks. While working on the logo, Rob Jan, according to his own confession, cut a lot of apples in halves, and used them as models to make the picture look realistic.
Shape and colors
After shutting down the ‘rainbow’ logo in 1998, Steve decided to use a monochromatic apple image. The logo’s shape remained unchanged. The reason was that the many-colored logo did not go well with the metal casing of new Mac computers. Today, the logo comes in different colors depending on the background.
It should be noted that there were a few color transformations in between. In 1999, an Aqua-themed version of the logo was introduced, and it was in use until 2003. In 2007 the designer team came up with a glass-themed logo, which was used until 2013.