Take a bite out of this trivia.
Apple is one of the most iconic brands out there with its instantly recognisable apple-shaped logo plastered across its sleek products. But have you ever wondered what the story behind the famous fruit is? Spoiler alert: it's pretty damn interesting.
Apple was founded in the 1970s by Steve Jobs and was first fronted by a detailed logo featuring Issac Newton sitting under a tree (see above). Indeed, it hasn't always been the famous bitten Apple we know and love today. Looking for some more logo inspiration? Make sure you check out our roundup of the best logos of all time.
The first logo was hand-drawn by Apple co-founder, Ronald Wayne, in 1975. Just two years later, Jobs asked artist Rob Janoff to create a new design for the company with the only brief being, "don't make it cute" (ironic, since the logo is pretty cute). Janoff created the silhouette of the Apple that we recognise today featuring six vibrant colours. This design has been remixed with different colours and textures ever since.
Now we know the question that's on everyone's minds – why has the logo got a bite missing? According to Apple Explained, Janoff put the bite in the Apple because without it, people found it hard to identify as an apple. In fact, the logo was often confused with a cherry.
We're not sure whether we can see the cherry in the alternative design, but we definitely think that the logo would look peculiar without the bite. If you're hoping to design an iconic logo then make sure you check out the best Adobe Creative Cloud discounts and get creating your own.
Why Apple’s Logo Has a Bite Taken Out of It
If you take a look at Apple’s famous logo design, you might notice a curved piece missing. It’s a bite mark in the fruit—but why is it there? We’ll explain the history and meaning behind the bite.
It Makes the Apple Shape Obvious
To develop the company’s early branding, Apple Computer, Inc. hired the Regis McKenna ad agency in 1977 (with a relationship that began in 1976). McKenna himself assigned the task of designing Apple’s logo to Rob Janoff, a graphic designer who worked for the firm.
According to a 2018 interview with Forbes, Janoff described the unique thematic opportunity provided by the contrast between a machine and a natural piece of fruit. “I just wanted to make the computer easy and fun to be around,” he said, and he thought including the approachable image of an apple fruit was a must.
While designing the Apple logo, Janoff created the iconic silhouette of an apple in a form very close to what we’re all familiar with today. In the process, he added a bite mark to make it obvious that the fruit depicted in the logo is an apple and not another fruit with a similar silhouette—like a cherry, for example.
Not only does the bite mark imply that the shape represents a fruit you’d typically take a bite out of while eating (as Apples are commonly eaten), but it also gives the apple shape a sense of scale. If you assume the bite came from an adult human mouth, the fruit is too large to be a cherry.
Janoff says the bite mark has no deeper symbolic meaning, and that he was unaware of the computer term “byte” while designing the logo. (Also, it has nothing to do with Alan Turing.)
Further playing off the bite mark, Janoff nestled the curvature of the lowercase “A” in the original Apple logotype into the negative space of the apple shape itself. Today, the original lowercase “apple” logotype is long gone, but a similar curvature remains.
The six color bands in the original logo signified the color capabilities of the Apple II computer, which were unique at the time for a computer of its price range. Apple dropped the original six-color logo for a monochrome design in 1998.
Apple Dental Forensics
Let’s have a bit of fun. If we assume that the bite mark in the modern Apple logo came from an adult human mouth, we can actually estimate the size of the apple depicted in the logo. This proves nothing useful, but in a world exclusive, How-To Geek can now reveal the size of the official Apple apple.
To get the size of the fruit, we need to know how big the bite mark is, and to do that, we need to know the size of a portion of a typical dental arch. A 2005 study found that the average width between first premolars in American adults was about 36.55 mm (if you average the results from men and women together). That’s about 1.43 inches.
If we use that measurement to estimate the size of the apple, we come up with an apple width of about 3.05″ (77.56 mm) across its widest part. According to Wikipedia, Apple growers aim to produce an apple that is 2.75″ to 3.74″ in diameter due to market preferences. So 3.05″ is definitely within the range of an apple.
The world wants to know the reason for choosing an unconventional name like “Apple” for the brand and the logo of an apple with a bite taken out of it for the company. However, there is no precise answer to these questions, but just myths and logics. Let us explore these things one by one:
There Is No Story
Some people claim that there is no deep story or hidden meaning behind the Apple logo. The designer of the logo chose a bitten apple because it appeared to be an apple, even its size was significantly reduced. On the other hand, a complete apple would appear to be a cherry when its size was shrunk.
The Alan Turing Story
A story that often crops up about the Apple logo is that the bitten apple is a mark of honor to Alan Turing. He was the man behind the foundation of modern computers. He pioneered the research about artificial intelligence as well as unlocked the codes of German wartime. He died ten years after the war ended, which is linked with Apple. Turing was never recognized for the work he had done and faced jail time for glaring indecency. He was given estrogen injections to ‘cure’ the homosexuality. Seeking freedom for all the humiliations, he had bit into an apple that he had laced with poison called cyanide. Alan Turing died in gloom in 1954, ten years after Normandy landings that used the intelligence garnered by Turing abundantly.
And, as the story unravels, the two entrepreneurs from Stanford were searching a logo to mark their computer establishment. They recalled Turing’s contribution towards their field. That is why; they chose an apple with a bite taken out of it, instead of a complete apple.
Even if the Turing story is never officially authenticated by Apple, but most employees of the company say it is true. You may also find many of them claiming it to be a myth.
The Biblical Theory And The Contemporary Story
Since Apple as a company represents knowledge, it chose a bitten apple because of many reasons. The biblical theory about Adam and Eve, and the story about an apple falling on the head of Sir Isaac Newton led to the adoption of a bitten apple as the Apple logo. The supporters of the Newton story also quote the name of Personal Digital Assistant of Apple, which was also called the Newton. However, the Newton was launched many years after the logo was created.
What Does The Logo Designer Has To Say?
The designer of the Apple logo, Rob Janoff, says that he did not refer to the Newton theory or the biblical theory to draw inspiration for his logo. In addition, although he is allured by the connection with the story of Turing, he was not aware of it when he created the logo. Even the designer is not sure how he came up with the apple outline, but the reason for the bite taken out of it was definitely to overcome the problems of scale.
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