Rob Janoff
From Philosopedia
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Rob Janoff (day/month/year - )
Janoff is the graphic designer of corporate logos who, working with art director Regis McKenna, was given the job of designing the Apple logo, one that was used by Macintosh from 1976 to 1998.
According to Janoff, the logo originally had been planned to be black and white in order to save on printing costs, but "Steve Jobs was resolute, arguing that color was the key to humanizing the company." The apple "with a bite out of it" became well-known in advertisements showing the new company that itself had a bite - the Macintosh had 128 kibibytes of memory, more than all of its competitors at that time.
After designing Apple's logo during the early Silicon Valley years, Janoff then worked on national print and television accounts for ad agencies in New York and Chicago that had clients such as IBM, Diners Club, Kleenex, Kraft, and SC Johnson.
As an independent, his Newtrix Company has done print and television work for Alberto Culver's St. Ives brand skin and hair care products and package design and advertising for ShariAnn's Organics, a line of organic soups and beans.
In an interview, Janoff has described how he got the job working "for a little company of two guys" [Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak] that wanted a logo for their Apple company. It seemed natural to buy some apples and place them on his work desk, but exactly how an artist comes up with inspiration and creates something is not easily described in words. He did get a chuckle, while drawing, when he bit into one of the apples on his desk. He tells that the Beatles and Yellow Submarine were popular at that time, and he had something like "a Eureka moment" during which he came up with the stripes, the green stripe necessarily on the top.
Of those who offer profound interpretations as to the logo's deep symbolism, Janoff has responded, "I love it when people get real esoteric about what I did. It wasn't like that at all."
When satisfied with his work, he submitted it, it was accepted, and he had no idea then that his artistic creation would rank as among the top of all corporate logos decades hence. The real charm of it all, he said of Jobs, was that "Steve's vision was so great and that the product developed into such a fabulous breakthrough, and I was so lucky to be part of it."
Apple now uses a chrome version of the original.
For Janoff, it was a one-time job, and although he watches Apple's various ventures he has not worked for the company since the original job.
(See entry for Alan Turing.)
