Apple’s Logo

They were wrong. In the past, I have seen drawings and articles that purported to show that Apple’s logo was created from circles and rectangles. They were wrong.

David Cole, in “Here’s Proof That Apple’s Logo Is NOT Based On The ‘Golden Ratio’ ” (Business Insider, Sep. 18, 2013), explains:

In researching this, the first thing to go looking for seemed to be whether or not the designer of the logo, Rob Janoff, has spoken about his process. Indeed, Janoff has addressed in an interview the evolution of the shape:

The apple shape changed slightly from my original design in the early 80’s. The design firm Landor & Associates made the changes. They brightened the colors, they made the shapes much more symmetrical, much more geometric. When I designed it I pretty much did it freehand.

…
So when you forgive the golden ratio not being used in the design process, and you forgive the fact that the logo cannot actually be derived from circles, and you forgive the fact that even approximated circles don’t line up with the proposed values, and you forgive the fact that any shape can be filled with circles of arbitrarily small diameters… what are you left with?

Copyright © 2015 Business Insider Inc. All rights reserved.

He has some interesting diagrams in his article. Go check it out. 

What I saw long ago seemed plausible. Goes to show that we have to really dig into things to know if they are true, even if they are plausible — well, especially if they are plausible, because the plausible can fool us more easily than the blatantly wrong. Or, I could have done the math on my own, as the guy in the article did.

Unless the Cole guy is wrong. Then what I saw before would be right. I’ll have to look into it more, but what Cole says, since he adduces quotes and analyzes original drawings, seems legit.