Entry 16 - A logo from the dark side...

For entry 16 – I am going to journey to the dark side.

This is Apple’s first log in the mid 70’s…

This logo was designed by Ronald Wayne. It looks black and white at first glance – but you look closely into the sky, you will see color there. The border reads: “Newton… A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought… Alone.” I feel this is a decent color choice for a logo, as it easily translates to a complete gray scale, ideal for monochrome copiers and printers of that time period. 4-color printing was around, but could get expensive. Some might argue that this log is too old fashioned and not well representing a computer company… well – that is what Steve Jobs thought, too…





In 1976, Steve Jobs (i.e. Voldermort, Lord Vader, Khan, Xerxes, Skeletor, etc…), commissioned designer Rob Janoff to come up with something more modern. The bite in the apple was implemented to keep it from looking like a tomato, according to Janoff. I think the rainbow color looked and contrasted great on the Apple of Old – especially the beige Apple II series and early Macintosh. Being the rainbow, you might say this is double split complementary, as nearly each of the Roy G Biv colors are illustrated, although not in the traditional order. I think Janoff wanted green at the top, as that is where the leaf is.



This is their latest logo – which again The Joker… er… Rasputin… I mean Feddie Krueger – oops – I meant Doctor Doom… … oh… alright – STEVE JOBS - had another hand in. Jobs returned to apple in 1997. Apple went to the current monochromatic metallic apple-logo. A key reason I think they did this is they wanted something that looked better on the big colorful plastic iMac’s of the late 90’s.



A little research and I also found opinions stating they went monochromatic as to save money on printing. The rainbow Apple required 4-color printed decals versus a solid black or gray for the new decal.

Well, personally, I like the newest Apple logo. And the general look of the brushed aluminum Macbooks and iMacs of today. I think putting a rainbow decal/logo on such devices really detracts from the clean lines and design of Apple's modern products.