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Interesting
Full interview
https://creativebits.org/interview/interview_rob_janoff_designer_apple_logo/
In 2009, Creative Bits interviewed Rob Janoff, the creator of the Apple computer company’s logo. Counter to what was written in the Facebook post, Janoff revealed that Turing had not, in fact, inspired its design, and that the rumor was nothing more than an urban legend.
Creative Bits: Is it possible you were influenced subconsciously by these stories?
Janoff: Well, I’m probably the least religious person, so Adam and Eve didn’t have anything to do with it. The bite of knowledge sounds fabulous, but that’s not it. And there is a whole lot of other lore about it. Turing, the famous supposed father of computer science who committed suicide in the early 50s, was British, and was accused of being homosexual, which he was. He was facing a jail sentence so he committed suicide to avoid all that. So, I heard one of the legends being that the colored logo was an homage to him. People think I did the colored stripes because of the gay flag. And, that was something really thought for a long time. The other really cool part was that apparently he killed himself with a cyanide-laced apple. And, then I found out Alan Turing’s favorite childhood story was “Snow White” where she falls asleep forever after eating a poisoned apple to be woken up by the handsome prince.
Anyway, when I explain the real reason why I did the bite it’s kind of a let down. But I’ll tell you. I designed it with a bite for scale, so people get that it was an apple not a cherry. Also it was kind of iconic about taking a bite out of an apple. Something that everyone can experience. It goes across cultures. If anybody ever had an apple he has probably bitten into it and that’s what you get. It was after I designed it that my creative director told me: “Well you know, there is a computer term called byte”. And I was like: “You’re kidding!” So, it was like perfect, but it was coincidental that it was also a computer term. At the time I had to be told everything about basic computer terms.