Making a recognizable and memorable logo is difficult, as it would take countless redesigns and planning to be able to create a great logo that will best represent your brand while also being simple enough for people to recognize from afar. One of the companies that first struggled with redesigns for their logo is Apple, so their now-iconic bitten apple logo wasn’t really there when the company was new. How did the Apple logo evolve to what it is today? And what prompted the change? These questions are answered in this brief history of the Apple logo and its evolution.
The Isaac Newton Logo
The first logo that was created for Apple was designed by Ronald Wayne, who is one of the co-founders of the company that started in 1976. The middle of the logo shows a drawing of Isaac Newton reading a book underneath a tree, and on top of him is a single apple that is illuminated to emphasize its presence in the logo. At the top and the bottom of the image is the name of the company, Apple Computer Co., which is written in a scarf or sash wrapped around the image of Newton.
It is a popular belief that Isaac Newton discovered the rules of gravity when an apple fell on his head during one particular day, so Apple wanted to depict that moment in their logo to presumably symbolize their never-ending will and desire to discover new things that are related to computers, gadgets, and technology.
The Rainbow Apple Logo
One of the co-founders of the tech company, Steve Jobs, wanted a simpler logo for the brand when they decided that it would need a design overhaul. Jobs believed that the original logo was too vintage-looking for a technology company and also too difficult to print in a smaller size. So, Jobs hired a graphic designer named Rob Janoff to make a logo that will combine the Apple name with the logo so that there would be no need to show the name of the company and thus make the logo much simpler.
It was Rob Janoff who is responsible for creating one of the most iconic company logos of the world, the bitten apple. However, the first logo design created by Janoff in 1977 features the colors of the rainbow in a stripe pattern. The rainbow colors of the apple logo were inspired by the company’s then-latest creation, the Apple II, which is the first computer with a full-color display. The bite in the apple is supposed to represent two things, the first being the emphasis on the fact that the logo is an apple and not a tomato and the second being the “byte” term commonly used in computer lingo.
The Monochrome Apple Logo
The rainbow Apple logo was used by the company for 22 years, but in 1998, just one year after Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, the colors shown in the logo would be changed. As Steve Jobs aimed for more simplicity in the brand, the rainbow colors of the logo were erased in favor of the monochromatic blue color. The color of the logo that was utilized at the start of 1998 was called “Bondi Blue,” but a few months later, the logo would change color again to a simpler black.
The black Apple logo is still being used today by the brand, but they have started adding more monochrome colors to the logo in order to fit specific products they are launching. For example, if the iPhone’s color is black, it would not make sense to make the logo at the back of the phone black as well. So, the company added white and silver as the two new monochrome colors starting in 2001 up to the present day. Apple has also provided free stickers for their customers for every purchase of the company’s product like the iPhone or the Apple computer, and this strategy enabled them to get free advertisements from customers that would stick the stickers in different items besides their Apple product, such as bags, notebooks, and even other gadgets. The company’s logo remained unchanged since 1977, as they still own the design created by Janoff.
Interestingly, the approximate measurements of the logo still haven’t changed, so the appearance and shape of the bitten apple icon are still the same for many years even though it changes in size. The Apple logo would most likely never change in the future, as it is now so memorable and recognizable that it would be a bad move for the company to actually change it to a different one that doesn’t resemble their classic bitten apple logo. So, we may expect to see the iconic Apple logo for many more years to come, as the company itself might also survive for more than 30 years given its booming success in the tech industry.