The monochrome Apple logo, used from 1998 to present.
The rainbow Apple logo, used from late 1976 to early 1998.
The logo seen on the start-up of several of Apple's computer systems.
Apple bridged the gap between man and machine. Apple is all about right brain aesthetic. Steve Jobs’ choice to follow what attracted him emotionally led to the first aesthetic computer and opened up an entirely new world to designers. Today, the Apple logo is easily identified worldwide. Its symbol is based in myth and shape.
In the creation myth in the Book of Genesis, God instructs Adam and Eve not to eat from the apple tree in the garden. A serpent taunts Eve when she shies away from the fruit for fear of death. He says that the real reason God forbids the apple is because once she takes a bite of it, her eyes will be opened and she will be “as the Gods, knowing good and evil”.
From the roots of our civilization, the apple has been symbolic of knowledge. As we know, Adam and Eve eat the apple, are expelled from the garden, and life, as we know it, begins—a life of evolution through knowledge and the expanding consciousness. So the apple with the bite out of it, symbolizes the acquisition of awareness.
The Christian story implies that knowledge is corruptive in itself. But there is another side to the story. If Eve didn’t eat the apple, life as we know it would not exist. There would be no evolution of humanity. It might be argued that with the advent of user-friendly computers, knowledge was brought to the masses. The Apple brand suggests it is nothing short of the beginning of creation itself.
In shape terms, the apple is essentially round. The circle is the symbol of unity in every culture throughout time. We are separated out from the wholeness of the universe, literally at the cellular level as we transform into humanness, and then during birth. We strive in love and life to recreate that unity. Marriage is an example of the return to unity: two opposites reunited to create the archetypal whole. The Apple logo also connects with the concept of this return with the active participation of eating the apple or ingesting knowledge by taking a bite out of the all-knowing. The reinforcement of myth with shape symbols creates a very powerful logo indeed. The story and the visual match the intent of transforming the world through the evolution of knowledge, encapsulated in a momentary glance.
"Guest Contributor"