Everyone knows the Apple logo, but few know its full history.
Today we tell you how the first Apple logo, one of the world’s most famous logos, was born, starting from its origins in 1976.
Apple logo and Isaac Newton
Initially, a logo was made depicting Isaac Newton under an apple tree.
It is said that Newton had the inspiration there that led to his discovery of the law of universal gravitation.
The logo, however, appeared too rich in detail and difficult to memorize.
This required a redesign. In 1977 Steve Jobs commissioned a new, more modern and user-friendly logo from graphic designer Rob Janoff.
Adam and Eve for Apple
From him came the iconic bitten apple, which can be traced back to the biblical story of the forbidden fruit picked and eaten by Eve and Adam. Here was born the symbol of desire, irreverence, rebellion but also of discovery and knowledge.
The metaphor was featured in a 1979 advertisement that read, “We are looking for the most original use of an apple since Adam.”
Are the Beatles an inspiration?
Some theories state that this solution originated instead from the cover of a Beatles Lp, which Steve Jobs found particularly eye-catching and inspiring.
Other theories instead attribute the choice of the apple, to the suicide of Alan Turing, the father of modern artificial intelligence studies. Turing was homosexual and was heavily persecuted for this at the time, being a “status” considered illegal in the UK.
In 1954 Alan committed suicide by ingesting cyanide: a bitten apple was found near his body. This suggested that cyanide was contained in the fruit.
Designer Rob Janoff said, that when designing the Apple logo, he did not assume all these possible interpretations. Within his site, he reported that these seemed to him to be “wonderful urban legends.”
The evolution
His work is described by him as follows: the bite represented a distinctive element, as it made the fruit different from others. The first apple in a rainbow version, highlighted Apple’s brand ability to present images in color making the company’s products more “humanized.”
Despite Janoff’s flat denial, there is also speculation that the multicolored logo is a genuine tribute to Alan Turing and the gay community that universally adopts rainbow colors.
In any case, we certainly know that the colored version of the Apple logo was used for a good 22 years until Steve Jobs decided to change it, adopting a more modern monochromatic look .
This then took on a variety of formats and colors over the last few years, depending on the medium on which it was to appear, keeping the form unchanged to the present day.
Apple’s logo makes use of a minimalist design, proving once again that simplicity is the basis of great design.
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