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Interview with Apple logo designer Rob Janoff
There's a great interview at CreativeBits today with Rob Janoff, designer of the Apple logo. That simple Apple with the chunk bitten out is as iconic as the company and products it represents. The logo has undergone several tweaks over the years, from the original rainbow to the aqua version that accompanied the original iMacs to the glassy version we see today. Fanatics will remember that the logo was introduced with the Apple II in 1977. Rob talks about this and other insights into the design's history, like the fact that he originally presented only two versions of the logo to the Steves (Jobs and Wozniak): One with and one without the "bite." Other tidbits include why the original design had stripes and what the bite really represents. It's an interview worth reading. Rob has been interviewed many times before, naturally -- see these past conversations for more insight.
RetroMacCast interviews Rob Janoff
The guys over at the RetroMacCast sent us a link to their latest episode, featuring an interview with none other than Rob Janoff, the designer of Apple's old rainbow Mac logo. The interview starts a little less than halfway into the show, and it's cool to hear a voice right out of Apple's past. They talk about the inception of the logo -- how Apple came to Janoff's firm and what they originally asked for in terms of a design. He actually had very little guidance when first creating the logo, and in fact hadn't seen any of Apple's branding or even heard of the company before he created the now-iconic image. He also talks about how lucky he was in choosing the image -- he saw it as a pretty obvious choice to use a picture of fruit for a company named after said fruit, but like any great logo, there ended up being layers of meaning behind that apple bite (or byte, as he points out).Nothing really earthshaking in the interview (he hasn't had contact with Apple since, and even he says that the mythology behind the company has much more to do than just the familiar logo), but hey, if you're hanging out today during Memorial Day and need something interesting to listen to while barbecuing, you can tune in and learn a little bit about Apple's corporate history.
Rob Janoff and how he made the Apple logo
ZLOK has re-posted an article (originally meant for the defunct Sync Magazine) about Rob Janoff, a designer who's credited with coming up with the iconic-as-they-come Apple logo. It's actually a really short piece, but he does talk pretty candidly about where he got the idea: by buying a bag of apples and slicing them up in different ways.And the original design was just a single color Apple (which, of course, Apple has used versions of since), but Jobs thought the design should be more colorful, so the logo got its familiar colored bands. Janoff says he just threw the colors in where he thought they might fit, which makes sense -- they don't match up with the physical spectrum at all, they're just sort of in there.Cool to see that something now so well known started off so simply. Janoff did the work for a design firm, and says that nowadays, he gets "not even a holiday card" for his invention. Apple does take their time recognizing inventors, though -- maybe the card's in the mail.[via Cult of Mac]
