7 ms·

NeXT Logo Presentation by Paul Rand to Steve Jobs [pdf]

59 points by michaelpinto 11y ago

alexandros 11y ago
Fascinating document. I always wondered if these well-worded explanations and positionings in historical context serve to get the logo accepted by biasing the reader, or if they genuinely add something. In other words, I wonder if the same logo, supported by a different document, will lead to a different answer by the client. Given all the work that's obviously been put into this document, I suspect it does matter. As an entrepreneur, I will endeavour to be presented the logo of my project in the same light and context that my customers will see it, and not with a heavy serving of storytelling, as that can only make things worse for my poor brain when it comes to choosing. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to read the context and process that led to the design, but only after I've made a choice.
threeseed 11y ago
Amazing to see what Steve Jobs paid $100K for. What's interesting is that because the logo was based on the black cube it actually would have forced the hardware to be in that configuration. Even though at the time the engineers were having a nightmare of a time trying to get components to fit inside it. If the logo was different then you could've seen the NeXT hardware in a different shape at a much lower price point. This then could've positioned them much better against Sun and SGI. Makes you wonder if this logo never existed would Jobs have ever ended up back at Apple and turned it into the company it is today.
wodenokoto 11y ago
I remember when reading the Steve jobs biography I got very excited about the next logo and had to put down the book to look it up. I was very disappointed.
- pjmlp 11y ago
  We really liked back when NeXT was a thing.
  - eps 11y ago
    And we thought it was the ugliest part of absilutely stunning machine. It had zero correlation with the product and stuck out like a sore thumb.
Theodores 11y ago
The NeXT logo probably would not be the choice today as it doesn't scale down small enough for favicons, mobile screens and so on. However, nobody really ever got to see a NeXT machine apart from Tim Berners Lee. The web really was 'next' so it all worked out well in the end.
- leoc 11y ago
  id Software famously used them as well.
  - leoc 11y ago
    To put more flesh on the bone, there were apparently about 40,000 NeXT users in 1993, many highly loyal. https://books.google.ie/books?id=QDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=next+80,000+nt+critical+success&source=bl&ots=WIERCpziId&sig=1TydheJMHteXy0jyqv5PobsOKmM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2rw8VdurMsyy7Qbsh4GwBQ&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=next%2080%2C000%20nt%20critical%20success&f=false https://books.google.ie/books?id=QDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA... So while the NeXT system certainly wasn't a mass-market hit and the company struggled financially, it wasn't quite as quirky and deeply obscure as it may seem nowadays.
- apricot 11y ago
  McGill University in Montreal had an undergraduate computing lab full of NeXT machines in the early 1990s. Visiting the lab was the high point of the tour they gave to prospective students.
- cmrdporcupine 11y ago
  Surely you're playing hyberole? The machines were pretty well marketed and most universities had them. I knew people who had one. And as a teenager, I wished I had the cash to get them, used to play with them at my sister's university bookstore.
tomelders 11y ago
In the trade we call this "post-rationalisation" and it's worse than worthless, it magically adds value to the worthless. Good design, especially good logo design, is self evident and doesn't need this kind of drivle. Also, it's objectivley a bad logo. Always has been. Always will be. It makes me angrier than it should, but that's why designers design I suppose.
- vatys 11y ago
  My favorite example of "post-rationalization" is the BREATHTAKING Design Strategy behind the new Pepsi logo of the last decade. http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-021109.pdf http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-... The bit about Pepsi energy fields and globe dynamics is my favorite, but it is all kind of amazing. Edit: By comparison, this NeXT logo document seems pretty tame. Mostly describing the intent behind font choices and getting people's attention. Making the 'e' small does help prevent the all-caps design from looking like it has 'EXIT' in it. And for what it's worth, I kind of like the NeXT logo. It looks a bit dated today, but it's not bad. Very 80s futurist.
  - tomelders 11y ago
    I put an asterisk in my second comment that was meant to link to the very example. I forgot to do it, glad you brought it up.
  - apricot 11y ago
    But that Pepsi logo document is obviously satire, in the spirit of "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity". Right?
    - bjterry 11y ago
      When it was leaked a few years ago, it was widely reported to be an actual document. All of the articles from the period said that Arnell Group wouldn't comment on its authenticity. I think it was definitely created by Arnell Group, but whether it was actually prepared for Pepsi's executives or whether it was a viral marketing campaign is still pretty much unknown.
d00r 11y ago
Related video: https://youtu.be/WHsHKzYOV2E?t=62 https://youtu.be/WHsHKzYOV2E?t=62
pan69 11y ago
This is a video of Paul Rand actually showing Steve and the company the logo for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeXlJW70KQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeXlJW70KQ
antaviana 11y ago
Paul rand writes: "There 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 stripped." I'm very surprised that Paul Rand misses completely that the stripes in IBM symbol resembled how computers printed letters back in the time with matrix printers. There is also a metaphor with the extremely classic paper used for computer business reports (white with blue stripes). My favorite logo design is Cisco's, that blends San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge with a network analyzer display.
- jameshart 11y ago
  I always considered the stripes more reminiscent of the phosphor stripes of an old greenscreen.
  - antaviana 11y ago
    Yes, that too. In other words, I think that the IBM logo has plenty of computer-related cues, only that you have to go back to 1970-1980. So I think that Paul Rand misses the point when he says that the IBM stripes are meaningless, even when it was Paul Rand himself who designed the IBM logo[1]. [1] https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/logo/logo_8.html https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/logo/logo_8.html
- michaelpinto 11y ago
  I think you're missing a bit of critical information: It was actually Paul Rand who put the stripes in the IBM logo. : )
jameshart 11y ago
Interesting to compare the typographic treatments to those used by the UK clothing retailer, Next Plc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_plc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_plc) - a ubiquitous UK highstreet brand since the 1980s. The white Caslon/Trajan style all caps on a black background that Rand showed on one page of this document (top of page 77 of the original, page 5 of the PDF) pretty much was the Next retail logo from 1991 to 2007.

59 points by michaelpinto 11y ago

Fascinating document. I always wondered if these well-worded explanations and positionings in historical context serve to get the logo accepted by biasing the reader, or if they genuinely add something. In other words, I wonder if the same logo, supported by a different document, will lead to a different answer by the client. Given all the work that's obviously been put into this document, I suspect it does matter. As an entrepreneur, I will endeavour to be presented the logo of my project in the same light and context that my customers will see it, and not with a heavy serving of storytelling, as that can only make things worse for my poor brain when it comes to choosing. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to read the context and process that led to the design, but only after I've made a choice.

threeseed 11y ago

Amazing to see what Steve Jobs paid $100K for. What's interesting is that because the logo was based on the black cube it actually would have forced the hardware to be in that configuration. Even though at the time the engineers were having a nightmare of a time trying to get components to fit inside it. If the logo was different then you could've seen the NeXT hardware in a different shape at a much lower price point. This then could've positioned them much better against Sun and SGI. Makes you wonder if this logo never existed would Jobs have ever ended up back at Apple and turned it into the company it is today.

wodenokoto 11y ago

I remember when reading the Steve jobs biography I got very excited about the next logo and had to put down the book to look it up. I was very disappointed.

pjmlp 11y ago
We really liked back when NeXT was a thing.
- eps 11y ago
  And we thought it was the ugliest part of absilutely stunning machine. It had zero correlation with the product and stuck out like a sore thumb.

Theodores 11y ago

The NeXT logo probably would not be the choice today as it doesn't scale down small enough for favicons, mobile screens and so on. However, nobody really ever got to see a NeXT machine apart from Tim Berners Lee. The web really was 'next' so it all worked out well in the end.

leoc 11y ago
id Software famously used them as well.
- leoc 11y ago
  To put more flesh on the bone, there were apparently about 40,000 NeXT users in 1993, many highly loyal. https://books.google.ie/books?id=QDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=next+80,000+nt+critical+success&source=bl&ots=WIERCpziId&sig=1TydheJMHteXy0jyqv5PobsOKmM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2rw8VdurMsyy7Qbsh4GwBQ&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=next%2080%2C000%20nt%20critical%20success&f=false https://books.google.ie/books?id=QDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA... So while the NeXT system certainly wasn't a mass-market hit and the company struggled financially, it wasn't quite as quirky and deeply obscure as it may seem nowadays.
apricot 11y ago
McGill University in Montreal had an undergraduate computing lab full of NeXT machines in the early 1990s. Visiting the lab was the high point of the tour they gave to prospective students.
cmrdporcupine 11y ago
Surely you're playing hyberole? The machines were pretty well marketed and most universities had them. I knew people who had one. And as a teenager, I wished I had the cash to get them, used to play with them at my sister's university bookstore.

tomelders 11y ago

In the trade we call this "post-rationalisation" and it's worse than worthless, it magically adds value to the worthless. Good design, especially good logo design, is self evident and doesn't need this kind of drivle. Also, it's objectivley a bad logo. Always has been. Always will be. It makes me angrier than it should, but that's why designers design I suppose.

vatys 11y ago
My favorite example of "post-rationalization" is the BREATHTAKING Design Strategy behind the new Pepsi logo of the last decade. http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-021109.pdf http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-... The bit about Pepsi energy fields and globe dynamics is my favorite, but it is all kind of amazing. Edit: By comparison, this NeXT logo document seems pretty tame. Mostly describing the intent behind font choices and getting people's attention. Making the 'e' small does help prevent the all-caps design from looking like it has 'EXIT' in it. And for what it's worth, I kind of like the NeXT logo. It looks a bit dated today, but it's not bad. Very 80s futurist.
- tomelders 11y ago
  I put an asterisk in my second comment that was meant to link to the very example. I forgot to do it, glad you brought it up.
- apricot 11y ago
  But that Pepsi logo document is obviously satire, in the spirit of "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity". Right?
  - bjterry 11y ago
    When it was leaked a few years ago, it was widely reported to be an actual document. All of the articles from the period said that Arnell Group wouldn't comment on its authenticity. I think it was definitely created by Arnell Group, but whether it was actually prepared for Pepsi's executives or whether it was a viral marketing campaign is still pretty much unknown.

d00r 11y ago

Related video: https://youtu.be/WHsHKzYOV2E?t=62 https://youtu.be/WHsHKzYOV2E?t=62

pan69 11y ago

This is a video of Paul Rand actually showing Steve and the company the logo for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeXlJW70KQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeXlJW70KQ

antaviana 11y ago

Paul rand writes: "There 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 stripped." I'm very surprised that Paul Rand misses completely that the stripes in IBM symbol resembled how computers printed letters back in the time with matrix printers. There is also a metaphor with the extremely classic paper used for computer business reports (white with blue stripes). My favorite logo design is Cisco's, that blends San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge with a network analyzer display.

jameshart 11y ago
I always considered the stripes more reminiscent of the phosphor stripes of an old greenscreen.
- antaviana 11y ago
  Yes, that too. In other words, I think that the IBM logo has plenty of computer-related cues, only that you have to go back to 1970-1980. So I think that Paul Rand misses the point when he says that the IBM stripes are meaningless, even when it was Paul Rand himself who designed the IBM logo[1]. [1] https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/logo/logo_8.html https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/logo/logo_8.html
michaelpinto 11y ago
I think you're missing a bit of critical information: It was actually Paul Rand who put the stripes in the IBM logo. : )

jameshart 11y ago

Interesting to compare the typographic treatments to those used by the UK clothing retailer, Next Plc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_plc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_plc) - a ubiquitous UK highstreet brand since the 1980s. The white Caslon/Trajan style all caps on a black background that Rand showed on one page of this document (top of page 77 of the original, page 5 of the PDF) pretty much was the Next retail logo from 1991 to 2007.