History of one logo. bitten apple

There are many companies in the world that are widely known not only to specialists, but also to ordinary users. But most of them do not have memorable logos. And very few have logos, the appearance of which is a whole legend.

Company `s logo Apple It is no coincidence that it is one of the most famous. There are many reasons for this - both the loud fame of the company and the recognition of the logo itself. There is such an old theory (although it does not stand up to serious criticism), according to which the logo should not only be memorable, but also such that any user can draw it on paper at any time. Car logos are great examples: Mercedes, Volkswagen, Opel... No less successful example and a bitten apple from Apple.

This logo is somewhat younger than the company itself. The fact is that at the beginning the creators wanted to beat the legend about the apple known to any schoolchild, which fell on Newton's head and allowed him to discover the law of universal gravitation. The idea as a whole is original, only the chosen logo was clearly cumbersome, not very memorable.

The first Apple logo. 1976

The logo in the form of a bitten apple was developed for the company by a representative of an advertising agency Regis McKenna (Regis McKenna Advertising Agency). According to the legend (namely, from this moment legends and conjectures begin), the art director of the agency, Rob Janoff, bought apples in the nearest supermarket and began to experiment, cutting them, arranging them in orderly rows and, in general, excelling in every way. But in the end, the development turned out to be very simple. Why is the apple bitten?

There are two main theories: the first is more plausible, it says that in this way the apple becomes more "real" and does not resemble any other fruit; the second is based on the similarity of English words "byte" ("byte") and bite ("bite"). There was also a case when a certain priest saw in the "bite" a clear allusion to the temptation of Adam and Eve. He did this, by the way, in a treatise in which he convincingly proved that Apple - from the Evil One.

They also say that Jobs, tired of waiting for a logo from Rob, watching his work, simply took a bite of one of the apples and said that if he doesn’t come up with anything in the near future, then let him take it as a basis. But this version can be questioned, since Rob himself never mentioned anything like that.

Первое яблоко было радужным. Это стало поводом для появления еще одной теории, согласно который, в надкушенном яблоке кроется глубинный смысл. Мол это прямой намек на самоубийство Алана Тьюринга — ученого, что так много сделал для информатики и вычислительной техники. Он был геем и, как рассказывает история, покончил с собой съев отравленное яблоко, не выдержав гонений общества. Во многом именно благодаря Тьюрингу удалось довольно быстро разгадать коды шифровальной машины Энигма, которая использовалась немцами во Второй мировой. Однако, уже после окончания войны, когда о сексуальной ориентации Тьюринга стало известно, ему предложили на выбор химическую кастрацию или длительное тюремное заключение. Он выбрал первое, поскольку желал продолжать полноценно заниматься наукой. Но проведенная над ним медицинская процедура сказалась на его внешнем облике. Именно эти перемены и привели к самоубийству ученого. Впрочем, впоследствии мать Тьюринга считала, что её сын не покончил с собой, а отравился случайно — в те дни он очень много экспериментировал с различными ядами.

Но теория «гомо-яблока» не выдерживает критики: дело в том, что радуга стала официальным логотипом сексуальных меньшинств несколько позже — впервые геи официально использовали радугу в 1979 году, через три года после появления «яблочного» логотипа. Вероятнее всего, радуга была взята (а Джобс настаивал на ее использовании, согласно воспоминаниям Роба) как символ толерантности и взаимопонимания — именно этот смысл она и носила изначально. Ее часто использовали хиппи, к которым некогда относился и сам Джобс. Возможно также, что тем самым подчеркивался факт того, что компьютеры Apple able to work with color, which was a novelty in those years. Moreover, the theory seems much more plausible, according to which Apple in 1998 abandoned the iridescent color of an apple precisely because the rainbow began to be perceived as an invariable attribute of sexual minorities, which could lead to not the most pleasant comparisons for the company, which by that time actively formed a new image.

An interesting fact is that Jobs was discouraged from using the rainbow. Solely because the cost of printing documents (as well as floppy disk labels, user manuals, etc.) with so many colors in those years was too high. But such products looked much better than those of competitors with their monochrome printouts. From the very first days of its existence Apple attracted consumers with attention to detail.

But our story would be incomplete if we didn’t tell you that the designer Rob Yanov did not receive anything for his work, not even gratitude. Jobs managed to ingratiate himself with Regis McKenna so much that he helped the young company almost free of charge, providing the opportunity to use the services of his employees.