The Apple logo has gone through many iterations and its history is as rich as the history of the company. The company was first founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. It has gone through budgetary challenges, changing executives, and now has more cash than it knows what to do with it and people get excited about every whisper from the company.
How did the logo go from the hand drawn Newton logo to the simple apple shape that is instantly recognizable to everyone today?
What Does the Apple Logo Mean?
It’s a direct association with the time when Steve Jobs lived in an apple orchard commune, and was one of the brightest periods of his life. However, what people usually think of first is the apple that fell from the tree and inspired Isaac Newton by hitting him on the head. The event started what we know as modern science and eventually to the creation of the first computer.
Apple Isn’t Only a Fruit
Steve Wozniak wrote about how the Apple Computer name came to be in his memoir.
I remember I was driving Steve Jobs back from the airport along Highway 85. Steve was coming back from a visit to Oregon to a place he called an “apple orchard.” It was actually some kind of commune. Steve suggested a name — Apple Computer. The first comment out of my mouth was, “What about Apple Records?” This was (and still is) the Beatles-owned record label. We both tried to come up with technical-sounding names that were better, but we couldn’t think of any good ones. Apple was so much better, better than any other name we could think of.
The First Design Attempt
In 1977 Ronald Wayne, one of the company’s founders made the first attempt to design a logo. The logo design was an illustration and portrayed momentous events in history. The style for the illustrations would look like something you’d see in a history book.
In branding design terms, the illustration style is far from ideal. It’s too complicated and is not something that would be memorable to a person casually observing by the logo. The style would be fitting for a craft beer label, but not for a technology company that wants to innovate the future. Tthe logo was used for less than a year.
1976 Apple Logo
The First Apple Logo
The apple has scientific symbolism because, as many know, it represents the apple that fell on Sir Isaac Newton’s head and inspired the discovery of the law of gravity. The event created science as we know it today and was revolutionary to human learning and development.
Steve Jobs saw the image of Newton as old fashioned and the logo was inconvenient, especially for resizing to accommodate a computer monitor. Jobs wanted a logo that was direct and fresh. For Jobs, the logo would need to communicate the company’s mood and impress others.
Reaching for Brand Identity
The presentation of the Apple II also served to reveal the brand to the world. The company couldn’t risk the future of the business on something “raw”. Based upon recommendations by a publicity firm and Apple investor and partner, Mark Makkula, Jobs reached out to Rob Janoff and the logo would be designed in 2 weeks and after a lot of apple drawings to get the perfect shape.
1977 Apple Logo
The 1977 Apple logo rainbow stripes would lead to later discussions connecting the logo to LGBT secret messages. However, the rainbow flag wasn’t proclaimed a symbol of the LGBT community until 1`978. The real meaning of the colored stripes is because of the computer’s colored monitor. Now a colored monitor isn’t amazing, but in 1977, it was a huge advantage over the common monochromatic displays.
Why is green at the top? The answer is simple, because the leaf needs to be green. That was the only color order requirement set by Steve Jobs.
Why the Bite in the Logo?
The reason for the bite taken out of the apple is to avoid confusion with other fruits such as a cherry or tomato. Janoff also had a fortunate coincidence later on with computer terminology with “bite” and “byte” being homonyms, and the fact that a byte is the smallest unit of digital information, and thus the basis of computing.
Translucent & Monochrome Logos of 1998
1998 introduced the translucent Apple logo
In 1998 a colorful new line of Macs were released, with the first color available being Bondi Blue. The new logo to accompany this fun and cute new Mac was a translucent monochrome apple; gone were the rainbow stripes and we were entering what was to be a simple cool future.
There was a Mac color to fit every personality. And on each Mac would be a glossy more realistic logo in the same color.
Apple G3s models
When not on an actual computer, such as ads, the logo was a simple flat black logotype. The black logo signaled to consumers that Apple is now a grown up company that can be taken seriously.
1998 Apple Logo
The Apple Logo 2001-2007
2001 to 2007 saw a lot of experimentation with the Apple logo. The aqua version of the Apple logo was used and then a red variation was used for Apple Care warranty and technical support purposes. A graphite version was used on the Power Mac G4 block. The aqua logo would continue to be used until 2007 when Apple would shift away from the glass look and adopt a more metallic and chrome-like texture.
The Apple Logo Today
Today the minimalistic style Apple logo is the standard logo used by the company. It’s clean, sophisticated, and embodies what Apple is to its audience.
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