To say that Steve Jobs was special would be an understatement. He was not like the others and that is why he triumphed. However, throughout his life, there are moments that could be described as curious, to say the least. This is one of those moments we will talk about today. steve He needed a logo for the company he founded when he was fired from Apple. He paid $100,000 for it. The truth is that as an investment it leaves something to be desired.
When John Sculley forced Steve out of the company he founded, he created NeXT, a company that could have competed with Apple, but was initially unsuccessful. His most famous computer was this cube that Steve bought molds for for $650,000, because otherwise the corners would not be exactly 90 degrees. In general, it didn’t sell much, but its operating system was very good, to the point that Apple decided to buy the company to keep it, and thus Steve became an integral part of the company of his life again .
“The e is the mnemonic factor”
Back to the NeXT logo. $100,000. That might sound like a lot, but it’s not even close to the most expensive logo in history. That of the BBC cost 1.8 million dollars and that of BP the staggering sum of 210 million. If we compare what Jobs paid at the time for his with these two – and especially with the second –, It almost looks like it came out cheap. However, that still represents a lot of money.
The designer they hired for the occasion was Paul Rand. He had already done Esquire and Apparel Arts, that’s nothing. It is hidden behind logos as famous as those of Ford, IBM or ABC. He was a professional. So when NeXT hired him to design its logo, it provided him with a 100-page book in which he explains, step by step, the entire creative process that led to his final design. And it’s a book you can read online.
The truth is that it is very interesting, although many would say that it is just a way to justify spending $100,000. Rand says in this book that:
“Ideally, a logo would explain or suggest the business it symbolizes, but this is rarely possible, or even necessary. The IBM symbol, for example, suggests nothing about computers except what the viewer reads into it. Stripes have become associated with computers because the initials of a major computer company have stripes on them. The same goes for the ABC symbol, which does not evoke television. The mnemonic factors of both logos are graphic devices: stripes and circles.. In this example, the e is the mnemonic factor.
But we are talking about thinking heads. And Steve Jobs was feeling restless, he wanted a handful of solutions, not a single alternative. However, in a interviewSteve Jobs explained that:
I asked him if he could think of any options and he said, “No, I solve your problem and you pay me. You are not required to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people.'”
It was a revolutionary logo. At that time, this style consisting of several colors, different letters or whatever was not very popular. Some say it was the precursor to Google
I would say that today, with the minimalism that reigns in the corporate world, this would not have succeeded. In fact, many users criticize the fact that It was a logo too anchored in its time, with an old aesthetic. At this point in the game it’s possible they’ve modernized it, but you can see the massive iteration work behind that.
I personally believe that It’s a very subjective world. be able to determine with certainty who is right. On one side, we have those who think this logo was born old and stuck in a corny era, and on the other, those who consider it a masterpiece. It is clear that he does not lack personality.
Neither too much nor not enough, I would say. Rand’s experience is undeniable, but there have been logos that received a much more unanimous positive opinion. Is it a masterpiece? I don’t know. I have no criteria for determining something like that. What do you think?
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