Has Apple Changed Their Logo?
This morning, I saw several blog posts recapping yesterday’s iPad announcement. One detail that didn’t go totally unremarked was the apparent update to the apple logo.
Tim Cook speaking in front of Apple’s updated logo
We haven’t yet seen an official press release from Apple, or any implementation on products, package, websites, etc. so it’s difficult to tell if this is just a musing on a specific presentation, or if this is the new way of things.
The evolution of Apple’s logo, courtesy of Gizmodo UK
The splotchy spectrum rainbow colouring is a clear reference to Apple’s original logo, which fit in nicely to the hippy tie-dyed aesthetic of the 60s and 70s, but had become a bit of a burden by the mid 90s. The two “shiny” ones above show a reference to the product designs of their respective eras, both of which are now somewhat outdated by Apple’s own styling.
In my opinion, the simple outline is still their only logo. They’ve always fallen back on this for single-colour uses, and wherever the logo appears in white against a colour — which is most RGB uses, actually — it’s not given any faux-metallic treatment. This return to the rainbow logo marks a revival of their origins. Does this mean we’ll also see a revival in the desktop arena compared to the recent focus on mobile? And does it also admit that we are now in a post-RGB world where logos appear most often on-screen, and only later in print or packaging?
With such an iconic logo, the design industry looks to Apple as a bellwether for changes in identity design. But without Steve Jobs, will the company maintain their design discipline for clean, elegant layouts? Or will they run and go wild with their logos, adding drop shadows and bevel effects like every other crappy client who ignores the guidelines?
We shall watch with interest.
via Computer Arts and Gizmodo
