The, now well-known, American company Apple was the first computer firm not to use its name as its corporate identity. The idea of selling a computer under the name and image of a fruit was conceived by Californian Steve Jobs and his colleagues (even the word "Macintosh" is the name of an apple variety). The motive of a multicolored apple with a bite taken out of it is a reference to the Bible story of Adam and Eve, in which the apple represents the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
Imagine if Apple was still using their original logo designed by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. Your iPhone would not look so cool with Isaac Newton sitting beneath a tree with an apple above his head just about to inspire him. Most people are not aware that the Apple logo derives from the noggin fruit hit on Sir Isaac Newton, not the Adam and Eve apple. Apple is not the root of all evil, as many think. Many companies have changed their logos and experienced growth in sales. Companies like Coca-Cola have not changed their logo for over 100 years, and remain a classic. Not too many companies are in that league. Change is good for some and others not too good. Tropicana tried to tinker with the logo and went too far, too revolutionary for some and the company paid the price. Tropicana veered too far and not slowly weened people to the new identity, so much that the product looked like a knock-off of themselves. Their straw going through the orange disappeared and the radical change was not met with enthusiasm, the criticism was so harsh that the company returned back to their roots.
Just imagine what an iBook or iPhone would look like with this image on it: definitely not as chic.Ronald Wayne designed Apple's original logo in 1976 when the company was still operating out of a garage.
It shows Isaac Newton sitting beneath a tree with an apple dangling precariously above his head.
Rob Janoff used the same apple in his redesign a year later.
"You can almost feel the '70s and '80s taking place when you take a look at that rainbow apple," says Bill Gardner, principal of Gardner Design.
Apple dropped the multi-colored logo in 1998 for a monochromatic version, produced in every color imaginable, until transitioning it to today's popular shade of chrome.
