
NeXT Logo Presentation by Paul Rand to Steve Jobs [pdf] - michaelpinto
http://jacobmorse.com/see/Next_Rand.pdf
======
tomelders
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
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-...](http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-
arnell-021109.pdf)

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.

~~~
apricot
But that Pepsi logo document is obviously satire, in the spirit of
"Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of
Quantum Gravity".

Right?

~~~
bjterry
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.

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antaviana
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
I always considered the stripes more reminiscent of the phosphor stripes of an
old greenscreen.

~~~
antaviana
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)

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pan69
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)

------
alexandros
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.

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wodenokoto
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
We really liked back when NeXT was a thing.

~~~
eps
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.

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threeseed
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.

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jameshart
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.

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Theodores
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
id Software famously used them as well.

~~~
leoc
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=PA...](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)
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.

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d00r
Related video:
[https://youtu.be/WHsHKzYOV2E?t=62](https://youtu.be/WHsHKzYOV2E?t=62)

