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Paul Rand's NeXT Logo (2010)
- eps 6y agoI really liked NeXTSTEP machines we had back in the uni - everything about them was thoroughly exciting except for the logo. It just stuck out like a sore thumb. Like someone forgot to replace a placeholder before signing off the design into production. So as much as I like Rand's work (and as cool as his business card was in its audacious minimalism), the Next logo is just too full of itself. As it is actually detached from the very product it was designed for.
- kzrdude 6y agoI don't see it, but I only see pictures. Like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTcube_Turbo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTcube_Turbo
- evanm 6y agoI initially read this as _Rand Paul's_ next logo, to which I thought... who gives a f*. But this was great.
- whywhywhywhy 6y ago> “I asked him if he would come up with a few options, and he said, ‘No, I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me. You don’t have to use the solution. If you want options go talk to other people.’” Surprises me Jobs would ask this, a demand for options, especially three options is usually a sign of a weak creative director lacking confidence.
- adventured 6y agoI don't find it surprising for Jobs, especially at that younger point in his life. He always wanted control; early Apple, NeXT, late Apple, that remained true across his entire professional life. Wanting Rand to present options is another way of trying to have control over the process, to try to get more influence over what the final product is. It's why Paul Rand wouldn't provide options, he wasn't willing to cede that control; it was Rand's way or the highway.
- dhosek 6y agoI wonder if this was a key moment in Steve Jobs becoming Steve Jobs.
- reaperducer 6y agoThere is nothing about the IBM symbol, for example, that suggests computers, except what the viewer reads into it. Stripes are now associated with computers because the initials of a great computer company happen to be striped. I hate to disagree with legends of their fields, but the IBM logo did make people think computers because the stripes looked like things that were familiar from computers of the era. For example, it was common for computer displays at the time to have space between the character lines. If you tried to create the letters IBM in a very large size on an early computer terminal, you would get lines between them because room was left for character descenders. I had relatives who worked for IBM in upstate New York in the 60's through the 80's, and they identified the stripes as being reminiscent of the green bar printer/ teletype/ terminal paper that was commonly used.
- chaoticmass 6y agoThe title should be NeXT not Next. Had me thinking we'd found some previously unreleased work of his or something.
- KorfmannArno 6y agoMe too
- throwaway894345 6y agoMan, I read all the way to the bottom expecting the NeXT story to be a prelude/context to some information about a new logo project...
- dang 6y agoCorner case. Fixed. Thanks!
- dang 6y agoIf curious see also 2018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16889051 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16889051 2015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9440589 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9440589 2010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1247653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1247653 2009 (1 comment) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969189 (Everybody seizes on the same bit...)
- dirtnugget 6y ago90% of these designs honestly look bland and very forgettable.
- icedchai 6y agoSad, but true. I've gotten better logo designs on Fiverr.
- Hoasi 6y ago> I've gotten better logo designs on Fiverr. Now, that's quite a statement. Those Fiverr designers must have left a lot of money on the table. Could you please show these better logos?
- icedchai 6y agoYes, I am exaggerating, but only slightly. I have a NeXT box here and always thought the logo looked amateurish.
- Hoasi 6y agoAmateurish is harsh. I would agree that it looks slightly dated, though not in the wrong way. If you go through the brochure, you get a sense that a lot of thought went into the design itself.
- runawaybottle 6y agoWell, what makes you so sure you have good taste? You have a taste, and many designs probably appealed to that taste. I’ve seen first hand bosses of companies favor designs (half way decent stuff) that appealed to their tastes, but there were elements of the company that knew his/her taste was a little bland.
- watt 6y agoI don't trust your sense of taste at all.
- submeta 6y agoI know this is about Paul Rand, but: The article links to an excellent interview with Steve Jobs. Enjoyed watching it.
- dehrmann 6y agoAt first I read this as "Rand Paul" and was slightly confused.
- coldtea 6y agoThe key insight about the NeXT logo is that it had to be iconic and memorable and invoke culture -- which it is. It's mission was not to satisfy some tech nerd's OCD about what looks techy.
- drno123 6y agoThe Apple “rainbow” logo is timeless. SGI cube logo was fantastic. NeXT logo? I never understood all the buzz around it, to me it is no better than original colorful Windows logo.
- blackhaz 6y agoBoth Windows and NeXT logos are awesome to me. One of the best ever.
- asveikau 6y agoThere were many iterations of the Windows logo. I am not a design buff at all but the ones from the 90s look pretty bad now IMHO. The tail of icons and all that... I am not a huge fan of some of the UI from Win8 and Win10 but the logo looks a bit nicer than it used to.
- nonesuchluck 6y agoThe Windows 1.0 logo [0] from 1985 looks shockingly modern to me: flat, negative space, recognizable in small and low fidelity reproductions. It was seemingly used until v3.1, when MS ruined the metaphor with the weird waving flag. The Sun Microsystems logo [1] is much-loved, but can never get too much credit imho. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Microsystems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Microsystems
- asveikau 6y agoThat's funny, that windows 1.0 logo does look pretty modern, but it also has a distinctly 80s feel. I feel every year though, 80s fashion and aesthetics are coming back in more and more parts of life.
- EL_Loco 6y agoI don't think highly of the NeXT logo either, but this comment on the article makes a good argument: "Considering how well recognized the NeXT logo is in the industry even though it was a minor company with barely any market, the logo is as remarkable as their products were"
- juanbyrge 6y agoThat NeXT logo looks awkward and amateurish. I could have done a better job making a next logo and I have never designed a logo in my life.
- chrstphrknwtn 6y agoHow about you give it a shot and then we’ll discuss it here?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- runawaybottle 6y agoRand kind of talks about the nebulous nature of design here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4ef1xBeMA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4ef1xBeMA Paraphrased, ‘If I designed the IBM logo with Old English instead of stripes, people might have thought it was a good logo too’. Rand talking about various famous logos he designed: https://youtu.be/LxiDNdM2-bM https://youtu.be/LxiDNdM2-bM On the ABC logo (second half of video): https://youtu.be/LxiDNdM2-bM https://youtu.be/LxiDNdM2-bM
- racl101 6y agoI always liked Sun Microsystems logo just cause it's like a puzzle where the pieces fit nicely. That U shape makes up the word "SUN" and it's shaped into a box. Not sure it has anything to do with computers, but neither does an apple with a bite taken out of it (unless you factor in the Alan Turing lore).
- tosser0001 6y agoThat short video of Paul Rand arriving to present the logo was part of a program that I saw years ago (maybe on PBS?) Does anyone know what that program was?
- Austin_Conlon 6y agoThe PBS program was called Entrepreneurs, here's the full segment with NeXT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kehU0zrWRI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kehU0zrWRI.
- Exuma 6y agoThat's really cool. It makes me nostalgic for the innocence of the 90s in business and doing anything really... now everything is just copies of copies of low quality trash, where competition is super high and everything has been done 92042 different ways.
- timpark 6y agoI came across this restaurant's logo not too long ago... https://nextfood.ca/ https://nextfood.ca/ It's like someone said, "Hmm, NeXT Computer isn't using that logo any more... let's just tweak it a little so it's not identical."
- DanielKehoe 6y agoThe black cube (as a Platonic ideal) was a Steve Jobs design statement (as the form factor for the first NeXT computer) and informs the logo design. The logo has richer significance within that context. To me, it is Steve Jobs saying that a computer doesn't have to be prosaic and as technologists we can aspire to more profound ideals. I still have a few stickers left on a sheet that came with my first NeXT cube. When I get a new laptop I cover the Apple logo with a NeXT logo. But it's less and less often that anyone recognizes the homage.
- Austin_Conlon 6y agoThe NeXT logo should be on one of those pins and stickers they give out at WWDC.
- tux1968 6y agoI remember hearing back at the time there was a snarky reply to the NEXT logo circulated within apple. The same logo, but replacing the last two letters to read NEVR -- to suggest the project was not going to ever amount to anything. Can't find any trace of it now with a quick google search though.