
Paul Rand's NeXT Logo (2010) - mmhsieh
https://www.logodesignlove.com/next-logo-paul-rand
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reaperducer
_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
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.

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hugi
I always associated the logo with the horizontal lining in dot matrix
printers.

~~~
dehrmann
Apparently you can still buy these new.

~~~
kjs3
Very useful for businesses that rely on multipart forms. They still exist,
too.

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drno123
The 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.

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EL_Loco
I 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"

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tpmx
The Steve Jobs effect. That's why the logo became famous.

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glenstein
I have the same reaction. I think that as consumers of media, we hear about
Next through the history of Steve Jobs' career and the history of Apple, and
media about those subjects is all over the place. I've never seen it out in
the world, or encountered some salient cultural reference it was attached to,
or saw it in anything outside of its status as a chapter in the history of
Apple.

~~~
em500
NeXT was also the platform on which Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web
browser, and on which Carmack wrote Doom. Not bad for a platform far smaller
than SGI or Sun I'd say.

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eps
I 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
I 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)

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dang
If 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...)

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whywhywhywhy
> “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
I 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
I wonder if this was a key moment in Steve Jobs becoming Steve Jobs.

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DanielKehoe
The 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
The NeXT logo should be on one of those pins and stickers they give out at
WWDC.

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timpark
I 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."

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racl101
I 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).

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coldtea
The 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.

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dehrmann
At first I read this as "Rand Paul" and was slightly confused.

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runawaybottle
Rand 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)

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submeta
I know this is about Paul Rand, but: The article links to an excellent
interview with Steve Jobs. Enjoyed watching it.

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tosser0001
That 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?

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Austin_Conlon
The 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
That'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.

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tux1968
I 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.

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chaoticmass
The title should be NeXT not Next.

Had me thinking we'd found some previously unreleased work of his or
something.

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dang
Corner case. Fixed. Thanks!

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dirtnugget
90% of these designs honestly look bland and very forgettable.

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LanceH
Someone looks at a piece of "art" and says, "I could do that."

Sure, but could you convince someone to pay you $100k for it?

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dirtnugget
The price does not make it better work.

I see very little effort to create a memorable logo. All these logos look very
much alike and neither of them feel like they have any soul to convey.

There is a hint at minimalist design, however I’d argue that minimal is easy
to learn, hard to master.

What do you feel when you look at it? I feel nothing. They are just printing
out their name in different variations.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not somebody who thinks good design is easy. Never
said that. I do however believe that a brand needs some kind of character and
uniqueness to their brand and these illustrations feel extremely generic.

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puranjay
I would encourage you to find an old NeXT computer and see the logo in flesh.
It adds a ton of personality to an otherwise unremarkable black box.

Keep in mind that this logo was done for a very physical medium. And you're
viewing it through an entirely digital medium - something neither Jobs nor
Rand could have envisioned back then.

I would like to think that if Rand was designing a logo for the digital age,
his approach would be entirely different

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juanbyrge
That 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
How about you give it a shot and then we’ll discuss it here?

