Apple Logo: History, Design, and Transformation
The Apple logo is likely the most famous fruit icon in the world. In its nearly 50 years, the legendary ‘bitten apple’ has gone through a world of transformation. From a complex illustration to a thing of simple beauty we’ve come to know and love, the Apple logo evolution has been fantastic.
Today, the Apple logo represents everything we know of its products: simple, sleek, and intuitive.
Image Source: Dribbble/MATEEFFECTS
But how did this evolution take place and how did it even start? Today’s post covers this and other mysteries surrounding this juicy little icon.
Let’s dig right in.
Origin and Overview of the Apple Brand
Apple was founded in Steve Jobs’ garage in 1976. Three Atari employees — Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne got together with a shared dream and vision: to create the world’s first home computers and make them accessible to the world.
Simple, achievable goals, right?
Before we get into Apple, let’s talk a bit about Atari. In the ‘80s, Atari was a company every kid knew. Atari made video games, arcade games, home video consoles, and everything in between. It’s such an ‘80s and ‘90s staple that even Stranger Things has featured it in its show.
Max in Stranger Things playing Dig Dug, an Atari arcade game. (Source: sportskeeda.com)
Atari, co-founded and run by Nolan Bushnell, a serial entrepreneur, is significant in Apple’s history. It allowed Apple founders access to computer technologies and components that would help them make their first computer kit. For example, the motherboard that Steve Wozniak created for Apple II was a sophisticated version of the motherboard he had designed for a hit arcade game, Breakout, for Atari a year prior.
For more on the complex history of Atari and Apple, here’s an interesting version.
Returning to the topic, the co-founders were excited about making home computers simple and accessible. But if you are any kind of creative person, you know simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve. Ron Wayne, Apple’s third co-founder certainly felt that way. Realizing he didn’t have the energy to commit to it, he threw in the towel 12 days later and cashed out his 10-percent share for $800.
Both the Steves stuck to it though and it paid off.
In the first year, Apple’s sales were a heartening $774,000. By 1980, they had grown to nearly $118 million, at a growth rate of 533%.
What helped Apple become so instantly profitable?
Without undermining Apple’s technological contributions (and there are many), what helped Apple was innovation: taking bits and pieces from what was available and turning them into groundbreaking tech. Much like a master chef does with simple ingredients to create a novel delicacy.
Apple simplified clunky and complex technologies (invented by other companies and now being wasted away in their R&D facilities) and used them to create revolutionary products. GUI, smartphones, web browsers, and desktop OS are not original Apple inventions. But Apple did the heavy lifting to optimize the code and hardware and innovate modern tech products that have become the standard. To this day, Apple continues to push the tech industry onward with its relentless innovation and design excellence.
We have Steve Jobs to thank for Apple’s insistence on seamless, sleek designs. It takes place both in product development and brand marketing. Look at different Apple products — the Apple Pay logo, the Apple Music logo, the Apple TV logo, the App Store logo, and others.
Their logo designs are easy and painless. Just the Apple icon with the product’s name in the San Francisco type. If you think that looks too plain, that’s exactly the idea. Vivid imagery can sometimes verge on attention-seeking, plus it’s always short-lived. As times change, audiences might not love the beautiful colors they once did. By keeping the logo designs explicitly simple, Apple exudes confidence and timelessness.
History of Apple Logo Design
Talk about humble beginnings.
Ronald Wayne, the third and often forgotten co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. designed the first Apple logo in 1976. He remembers it being a fun process.
“I knew at the time it was not a legit 20th-century logo, it was a 19th-century logo, but it was fun. Everything we did in the beginning was for fun.”
Fun or not, the logo was certainly ‘interesting’. It was an homage to the famous story of Newton sitting under an apple tree. In addition to Newton and his tree, the logo also had a ribbon, a badge, and even a William Wordsworth quote:
“Newton… a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought…alone.”
Though deeply philosophical, the design didn’t have much practical use. A company trying to make accessible home computers couldn’t lug that heavy image around. Soon after, a redesign was commissioned.
Steve Jobs hired Rob Janoff, a graphic designer with Regis McKenna agency to redo the Apple logo so that not only it looks simple but has a print-friendly design too.
Rob Janoff went home, bought a bunch of apples, and started sketching. As Janoff recalls, he was never given a proper design brief. And how grateful he is for that!
“…if they had given me a brief, it would have given me all the wrong stuff. I just wanted to make the computer easy and fun to be around.”
As we all know, he succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. The bitten Apple logo became an instant success and helped truly showcase the accessibility of Apple computers.
And all those colorful stripes, were they there for fun too?
Only in part. Rob Janoff wanted to highlight the USP of Apple II computers: they could show you images in color.
But the colorful stripes also made the logo look more approachable and organic, which Jobs wanted. He wanted his computers to be used in schools, homes, and workplaces and a fun Apple icon helped communicate that message.
Over the years, the minimalist Apple icon evolved from a fun colorful image to a chic corporate symbol. This branding evolution echos Apple’s technological escalation. What started as an idea to make computers more accessible and user-friendly has birthed a company that has forever changed lives. The way we live, work, create, and communicate has forever been altered and made better, thanks to technologies produced and shared by Apple Inc.
Evolution of the Apple Logo
Apple logo has one of the best branding glow-ups ever.
Take a look.
• 1976 — The Original Apple
The original Apple logo was designed by the third co-founder of the newly formed Apple company, Ron Wayne. He featured Isaac Newton’s famous apple story in the logo design to show the power of ideas and how even the simplest things can sometimes trigger great discoveries.
• 1977
Steve Jobs commissioned the Apple logo to be redesigned. Rob Janoff was hired for the task. He chose an apple icon to highlight the simplicity, user-friendliness, and accessibility of the computers Apple was making. Why is the Apple logo half-bitten?
To ensure it looks like an apple and not a cherry when scaled. Plus he thought it was pretty cool that data is known as ‘byte’ in computing terms. He didn’t know that when he was creating the logo.
• 1984
The major change in the 1984 redesign of the Apple logo was removing the brand wordmark from the design. The folks at the top thought the Apple icon was now a world-famous symbol and didn’t need the brand name for identification. They were right.
• 1998
Do you know the famous fashion advice by Coco Chanel?
“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.”
Steve Jobs believed in something similar. In 1998, he had recently rejoined the company he had created after being famously forced out of it in 1986. He tried rebranding the logo to fully send home the message of understated luxury and iconic simplicity.
The first attempt was a translucent blue logo for the newly launched iMac in the same translucent design. Later, an all-black logo was released to portray premium quality and a chic appeal.
• 2001
The sky-blue translucent logo would make a comeback in 2001 but this time in gray with a chrome-textured feel that would be appropriate for the colored plastics body of the iMac then.
• 2007
This is one of the most well-enduring Apple logo designs. It was a 3D logo with a glass-themed look. Apple had started to move towards sustainable materials to use in its products and aluminum was a profitable choice to invest in.
This sleek new logo helped make Apple products look more expensive and high-quality than ever before.
• 2017- The present day
The present Apple logo is a beauty in gray. Its monochromatic appeal lends itself effectively no matter the surface and the background. Its reflective quality is legendary, and unlike black which can be a somber color for all its sophistication, the dark gray exudes a kind of finesse that black can’t match.
Key Elements of the Apple Logo
With the Apple logo being one of the most iconic corporate symbols in history, there’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s dive in.
Image Source: developer.apple.com
Icon: The Bitten Apple
Why is the Apple logo bitten is a key branding detail and the topic of many theories, debates, and legends. Some connect it with Turing and his tragic story of the poisoned apple. Some believe it’s tied to the Apple of Knowledge tree in the story of Adam and Eve. Others are convinced it has something to do with Newton unlocking the great mystery of Earth’s gravitational force when sitting under an Apple tree. Geometry enthusiasts accredit the perfect bite design to golden ratio principles.
The truth is infinitely less romantic, though.
The Apple logo designer, Rob Janoff, designed the bite feature to ensure the Apple icon looks distinct when scaled. He wanted people to be able to distinguish it as an apple and not any other fruit when looking from a distance or in smaller sizes.
He also wanted to point out a natural reaction to apples: taking a bite out of them!
Talking to the design magazine Creative Bits, he says, “Also it was kind of iconic about taking a bite out of an apple. Something that everyone can experience. It goes across cultures. If anybody ever had an apple he has probably bitten into it and that’s what you get.”
So is bite = byte not true either?
No, just a happy coincidence. He found out about it after he had designed the logo. His exact reaction was: “You’re kidding!”
Colors: Dark Gray
The Apple logo has evolved from a colorful fruity icon to a polished symbol of superior technology. The current Apple icon is dark gray signifying luxury and looks brilliant against the sleek surfaces of Apple products.
But back in 1977, when the logo was first launched, it sported a rainbow spectrum to emphasize the vibrant display capabilities of the Apple II computer, one of the brand’s earliest products.
As the technology within Apple evolved, so did its design understanding. Steve Jobs’ love of simplicity fueled Apple to adopt the philosophy of “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Typeface: San Francisco
According to Apple’s guidelines to its third-party affiliates, Apple uses a slightly modified version of the Myriad font called Myriad set for its marketing assets. Elsewhere in their brand universe, they use their custom font, San Francisco.
It’s worth noting that Apple has one of those iconic logos that don’t require their brand names for identification. As a standalone mark, it represents the Apple brand with clarity and finesse.
Brand Emotions: Revolutionary & Connected
All brands focus on certain emotions they want their customers to feel when they use their products or hear their names. These desires only come true through relentless innovation and inventive marketing.
Steve Jobs was a genius at both.
Through his efforts and cult personality, he positioned Apple Inc. as a company that values revolutionary innovation above all. From creating Macintosh computers that popularized Graphical User Interface to pioneering smartphone technology, he insisted on Apple becoming a company that breaks norms and revolutionizes the tech.
These efforts paid off and Apple consumers became more than consumers. Marketing experts term them as brand evangelists. Here’s an article Fast Company did covering a study on how Apple forms tight emotional bonds with its consumers.
Through later products like the Apple Watch and AirPods, Apple has become physically closer to its customers too. People not only use its products, they wear its products. So not only is Apple this genius brand that wants to create cool new technologies, but it’s also this amazing brand that wants to make our lives easier and more fulfilling with those technologies.
Brand Slogan: Think Different
Apple has one of the most famous, inspiring, and ingenious brand slogans in the world: Think Different.
It was launched in 1997 as an ode to creative thinkers and revolutionaries across cultures and continents. Its ad campaign featured game changers like Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, Jane Goodall, Mahatma Gandhi, and 11 others.
Through this campaign and the effective business slogan, Apple has cleverly aligned itself with the people and ideologies of innovation, creativity, and breaking the status quo. But it has not been an empty association. By producing groundbreaking products and inventive new technologies, Apple has cemented its position as a tech company that thinks differently and so deserves a spot right next to these visionaries.
Website: Crisp, Confident, & Lifesized!
Apple features a modern website that’s sleek, minimalist, and user-friendly. With product photography that fills out the screens and interactive elements, Apple’s website conveys its brand ethos effectively. It’s stylish as hell and as intuitive as we expect an Apple product to be.
The website is easy to navigate and features the latest products, software updates, and support resources. Multimedia elements such as videos engage visitors and highlight key features of their products.
Overall, the Apple website is a confident extension of Apple’s design excellence.
Your FAQs about the Apple Logo
If you’re looking for a TL;DR, it’s right here. Check out these questions to get answers to some of the burning mysteries behind the Apple logo.
1. What’s the story behind the Apple logo?
In 1977, a year after the company was formed, Steve Jobs hired graphic designer Rob Janoff (then at the Regis McKenna agency which was later acquired by Chiat/Day) to redesign their logo. The original Apple logo, only a year-old logo was too complex for Apple, which was trying to create user-friendly home computers.
2. Why is Apple’s logo a bitten apple?
There are two reasons why Rob Janoff created that bite in the Apple logo:
- To ensure the apple looked distinct when scaled and people didn’t confuse it with other fruits like cherry or something.
- Because it’s an apple, folks! What do you go when you get an apple? You likely bite into it. And that’s what Rob Janoff was highlighting. To make the logo look more accessible, fun, and playful.
3. What does the Apple logo mean about Adam and Eve?
While the Apple logo does not hint at the Apple of Knowledge Eve bit into, it’s a connection always associated with the iconic bite design. He later discovered that ‘byte’ is a unit of data or knowledge in computer terms and thought it was a pretty cool coincidence.
4. Why did Steve Jobs name the company Apple?
Contrary to many popular theories, some of them even Steve Jobs wished were true, the origin of the name is quite boring.
Jobs was on a fruitarian diet when working on his startup. On a visit to an apple orchard with co-founder Steve Wozniak, he suggested ‘apple’ as their company name because of its ‘fun, spirited, and not-intimidating’ appeal.
Legend also has it that he wanted it named Apple so it appeared before Atari in phone books. For those who don’t know, both he and Steve Wozniak worked at Atari when they founded the Apple startup.
5. Who created the Apple logo?
Rob Janoff, designed the now-iconic half-bitten Apple logo in 1977. It featured colorful stripes, and was intended on Steve Jobs’ single-line creative brief: ‘Don’t make it cute.’
6. What is Apple’s slogan?
The official Apple slogan is ‘Think Different’. It was coined as a joint effort between Apple and the creative agency Chiat/Day. The slogan was launched with a worldwide ad campaign of the same name.
Both the campaign and the slogan took off like wildfire. Overnight, they transformed Apple’s image from a somewhat interesting but somewhat stupid company to a tech revolutionary maverick.
7. What color is the Apple logo?
The current Apple logo is a dark gray color. The logo started as a rainbow-colored apple when first launched, but over the years, Apple has stuck to a gray theme, presumably because of Steve Jobs’ insistence on design simplicity.
Conclusion
The Apple logo design is a modern phenomenon of corporate symbols becoming cult classics. While not all brands can achieve that status, you can put your stock in a simple design and receive some great results. Here is a quick tutorial on how good logo designs are made.