THE SIGN OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF COMPUTERS
FOR EDUCATION

Paul Rand

8.375 x 11.875 book written and designed by Rand for Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer Company. An original copy of the presentation book prepared for Jobs in the Spring of 1986. "In this veritable textbook of logo design, Rand explained the decisions that supported his type choices and how these simple letters were transfromed into a mnemonic mark." [Heller]

Once upon a time, Jobs had an idea for a user-friendly personal computer that ran on a UNIX platform. He had the technology. He had the money. But he needed a logo. You know where this is going.

"Paul understood the purpose and power of logos better than anyone in history," explained Jobs about his decision to pay $100,000 for the mark in 1986. "he was also the greatest living graphic designer." [Heller, pp. 194]

With a track record including Esquire Magazine (1938), Coronet Brandy (1941), Helbros Watch Company (1943), Borzai Books (1945), Smith, Kline and French Laboratories (1945), Robeson Cutlery Corporation (1947), El Producto Cigar Company (1952), International Business Machines Corporation (1956), Harcourt Brace and Company (1957), Colorforms (1959), Consolidated Cigar Corporation (1959), Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1960), UPS (1961), ABC (1962), etc. Rand was clearly up to the task.

"The book itself was a big surprise," Jobs recalled, "I was convinced that each typographic example on the first few pages was the final logo. I was not quite sure what Paul was doing until I reached the end. And at that moment I knew we had a solution . . . Rand gave us a jewel, which in retrospect seems so obvious."

In "The Trademark as an Illustrative Device" Rand wrote that "the trademark becomes doubly meaningful when it is used both as an identifying device and an illustration, each working hand in hand to enhance and dramatize the effect of the whole." Jobs got the point.

A true piece of Design and Cultural history.

out of stock