I finally took the time to watch the PBS Steve Jobs Special- One last thing and afterwards, to give my mind time to absorb things, I did a Google search “Steve Jobs.” Kind of the “I’m feeling lucky” approach to research and casual reading, as there was nothing particular I was looking for.
Wiki box
Within 0.26 seconds, 1,480,000 results populated and top on the list was the Wiki on Steve Jobs. Even though there is nothing new under the sun (and I’ve about read everything I can get my grubby little hands on about him and the early days of Apple), I clicked through anyway and began scanning. I glanced down the page, there midway down and off to the side was a box referencing Apple’s logo creator, Rob Janoff.
Apple’s logo is one of the most widely recognized images of any company in the world. It is classic. And their original multi-colored logo of an apple with a bite missing is my favorite and symbolizes early Apple best.
Rob’s Wiki is short and sweet. His pedigree centers on this single fact- “He is known for his creation of the Apple logo.” Wow! This guy is an important cast member in the Apple story and someone whose work is near and dear to my heart, and that of millions of other Apple fans.
Rob Janoff- creator of the Apple logo
And then I found it- the golden nugget that my muse led me to- a reference at the bottom of his page to an interview conducted with him on August 3, 2009 with Ivan of CreativeBits.org.
Talk about a piece of Apple history! Here Rob walks us through the story of meeting Steve, the hiring of ad agency he worked for, the how and why of the logo’s design and also dispels the many myths around this magical design, including all the ones about what the color stripes represent.
…the real solid reason for the stripes was that the Apple II was the first home or personal computer that could reproduce images on the monitor in color. So it represents color bars on the screen. Rob Janoff, designer of the Apple logo
An interview for the ages. Man, I love the Web!
Credit: Wiki on Steve Jobs and Rob Janoff, CreativeBits.org both for content and images
