“A Hong Kong design student’s poignant tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs became an internet hit Thursday with its minimalist, touching symbolism and brought a job offer and a flood of commemorative merchandise using his design,” James Pomfret and Sisi Tang report for Reuters.
“Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Mak, a student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University School of Design, came up with the idea of incorporating Steve Jobs’ silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo, symbolizing both Jobs’ departure and lingering presence at the core of the company,” Pomfret and Tang report. “The design spread like wildfire in cyberspace, drawing hundreds of thousands of posts, and even commemorative caps and T-shirts peddled on eBay featuring his design.”
“‘Originally, I was going to put a black modified logo against a white background,’ said the bespectacled Mak who paid tribute to Jobs at Hong Kong’s Apple store,” Pomfret and Tang report. “‘It just didn’t feel somber enough. I just wanted it to be a very quiet commemoration. It’s just this quiet realization that Apple is now missing a piece. It’s just kind of implying his absence.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Should Apple replace the company logo with this one? Vote in our poll on our main site near the top of the left column and let us know why below.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Terrance” for the heads up.]
Although a nice thought, but no.. Steve Jobs would never have approved.
+1. I actually like it, could even see it as a poster, but cannot see this as the logo.
I’ll agree with txmacsa. Beautiful design, and I’d love to see it as a poster, display it for the rest of the week on the Apple.com site, etc, but change the logo? No, and as others have said, Steve probably wouldn’t want it done, even as a tribute.
Fantastic as the design is, Apple must move on from the present into its future, of which Steve Jobs — sadly — is not going to be a part.
I agree. It’s a wonderful homage and I love that I see so many people using it on Facebook, but Steve would never approve of the company using it.
agreed – no do not change it.
nice idea – but having stoves head where the bite was
seems morbid to me
Great poster, but Steve always insisted Apple was a team, not a person.
Agree; this logo would be great honour to Jobs, but Apple would betray his minimalism principles. Also, Jobs was usually humble in sense of inserting his name and/or images in even little credits, let alone the logo.
Texas Mac, San Antonio?
it’s pretty cool and a nice tribute, but I would have to say no. I think Steve would agree
I agree
As instrumental as Steve Jobs was to Apple, and how instrumental Apple has been to technology, to use this image as the logo would be to say that Apple is all about Steve Jobs. As touching as this image is, there has been a question about whether Apple was bigger than Steve Jobs even when reports of his cancer first came out, and to adopt this as the official logo would be to say the answer is no, and we all firmly believe the answer is yes.
You nailed it. I liked the Logo, to use this image in place of the existing one would be totally unaccptable.
Bahru
No. All due respect to Steve Jobs, that logo would be creepy.
Ummm
No.
Although a nice graphic and gesture… but no… Steve Jobs would have never approved.
Absolutely not.
Company logo? No. On a headstone, though, sure.
Hell NO !
A great memorial design, and a great graphic (I’ll buy the t-shirt). But as a corporate logo, it’s probably the last thing Steve Jobs would have wanted…
No.
Nice, but no.
No. While this is beautiful and it is on my iPhone’s wallpaper as I pass through the grieving process, I think the Steve Jobs would not have approved.
no.
I like it!!
No. As much as I admired him, and now will miss him, No.
Not really a very steve jobs thing to do is it?
I vote no on this one too.
A non-starter. Jobs was always very concerned that all of Apple’s design elements would look clean under all their conditions of use. The small details required to represent Steve’s face would make this logo look like a jagged mess at smaller sizes.
No but Apple should give the kid a Mac of his choice.
what Apple SHOULD do is build this somewhere on the new campus http://www.xkcd.com/961
He looks sad there.
Steve will always be a beacon but also a shadow hanging over the company and this would unfortunately be exactly what the denigrators would seek, to claim that this is a one man business. This logo is a lovely way of honouring him but not as the official logo, the company need to prove it is unique leading the field with or without the Master. This would suggest they are looking backwards not forwards.
I don’t think it should become the company logo.
I would be all about buying some Apple merchandise with this image on it though.
Some select Apple products released next year around the time of his passing as a Special Edition with the logo on it would be a nice tribute but as a permanent switch, no.
A nice thought and gesture, but definitely ‘of the moment’.
Having it as the company logo would imply Apple looks to the past, the complete antithesis of everything Steve.
Although I will print and frame it, and hang it on my wall……
NO. It’s not what Steve would do.
Absolutely not.
Steve always wanted forward thinking. Not hanging onto the past. It would fly against everything he stood for.
It’s a beautiful wordless tribute symbol for the week. But that is enough for it.
I think it should be a Think Different Poster that the public can purchase. It sums up how I feel and would like to have a copy to hang in my office.
A nice touch, but not something Steve would want. Nice wares for fans though.
No.
How about using the orginal colored version for awhile š miss u Steve !!!
No.
No.
I don’t like Steve looking down.
Make the profile either looking straight or up – forward or higher.
Apple never looks down or back.
No, but this will become the wallpaper on my iPhone going forward
It does beg us to imagine how we’ll see Apple in a year or five.
One wonders if Steve hasn’t built some Hari Seldon (Issac Asimov’s Foundation) device to come back at points in the future; give us guidance at crucial nexuses.
I’d say no but I think that should go up on the apple store. It would most likely go on back order asap
I voted YES…but…..yeah it would be kind of strange and a little creepy as years go by.
Other successful logo’s that use their founders as part of the logo would be KFC, Wendy’s. However with a high tech company it doesn’t kind of “rhyme”.
I’d be open to some products having a commemorative kind of theme for a limited time though. For example I just ordered today a NANO with the inscription “Steve Jobs, 1955-Forever”. I’ll be wearing that as a watch. Also ordered 2 iPhone 4s’s and a bunch of other accessories….total value over $2K.
Apple is the brand. Steve Jobs would have rejected it out of hand because it is all about the brand. I was for a good number of years an Apple VAR and there were strict rules in place to protect the band and only portray it in the appropriate light and space.
Steve will be certainly be missed but he was but one person on the team at Apple. I am certain that Apple, having benefited greatly from Steve’s vision and inspiration, will continue.
I have no doubt that Steve had done much to prepare Tim Cook, Phil Schiller and the rest of the management, development, and design teams for the transition.
I think it’s appropriate for some per-determined mourning period, as a permanent change however, I don’t believer that’s not what Steve would have wanted. (BTW, how the hell would I know, I never met the man, but that’s my opinion)
Remember his Stanford speech, “death is natures change agent, out with the old and in with the new”. I’m quite certain he doesn’t want Apple looking backward in any way.
Awesome job!
I skeptical until I saw it!
Very classy. I think they should run a limited run of products with the logo, if not switch to it entirely.
I was skeptical until I saw it, but this is very classy!
Awesome job.
I think they should at the very least use the design in some capacity.
Perhaps if they released it as a poster or t-shirt with proceeds going to cancer research otherwise no.
All the ‘NOs’ make cogent points. A ‘Yes’ would reinforce the corporate need to keep alive Steve’s vision, values, and strategy, as symbolized by his looking down…as in a deep thoughtful moment.
Maybe it could find its way into Apple University – since that was all about how to recreate Steve Jobs’ creativity and vision for a whole new generation of Apple executives (and how knows? Maybe other companies as well)
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It bothers me that he looks sad. If another one could be done where he didn’t look sad, that would be fine, but too hard to pull off in all the instances where the logo was really small. Steve would *hate* that.
No.
1) Steve would want Apple to be more than just him
2) Apple wants to be Apple for ever with of without Steve
3) Although a fun logo, Steve would never approve from a design stand point
4) It is not a good logo
It would make a great tribute T-shirt for a man that accomplished so much.
I think jobs would be looking up rather than down.
Awesome work! Simple and elegant. But cannot be a logo. It is impossible to etch this on devices.
Hey, I’m proud of you guys. Chalk me up as another No.
There should be a one of ‘Mac’ produced with this logo etched upon it’s case as a special tribute to Steve the legend. It would sell big time!
Steve was not a byte.
The idea is someone (Apple founders and users perhaps) has take a bite of Apple (Biblical or Snow-Whitey), defying authority for self-awareness and knowledge to betide. Steve is one of the enlightened ones to have taken the bite with humanity, not the bite itself.
Hell ya. It seems fitting.
Its really cool but in no way should it ever be the company logo. Steve would definitely roll over.
No don’t change it. Nice sentiment, but I hate those images where you look at it one way you see one thing and then look at it another and see something else. At quick glance one could look at the Apple and think that person has one heck of an overbite!
Absolutely no. Steve never ever would have approved of this. The essence (and genius) of Steve and by extension Apple is simplicity.
As a commemorative logo, yes … But as a company logo no!!!
I think Jobs would not endorse this. He being of the big picture and this would indicate that One man is bigger than the bite
No fucking way.
It is a fitting tribute to Steve Jobs. However, I doubt Steve would have approved. Apple must now look to the future and remain as innovative and out of the box as Steve was. I think if there were a few special edition products folks could have an option to have this logo in them. RIP Steve. I thank you for all the apples I own and love (Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, IMAC, Macbook). I for one would love this logo on the IPad 2 I want to but.
Just because Steve wouldn’t put his face in the logo, doesn’t mean that the company shouldn’t. It would be a wonderful tribute – memorialize the iconic man in the icon of his products.
Not original at all, I first saw this logo in a printed edition of Time (August 1997) published after the Macworld Expo with Bill Gates on screen. Design is possibly even older. I still have that copy of Time.
I think it’s great, but apple needs to show that they can keep going. As some said, use it online for a while, but keepthe logo the same
No.
But a tribute Steve Jobs signature inside of every new products case.
Maybe a limited edition version would be nice after all it the death of Jobs seems similar to that of of JFK. And is more popular now that he is dead just like Elvis.
I think a special edition would work
A limited edition would be a nice tribute along with a book front cover
Definitely. It seems to show Steve still watching over the company. I’m sure he is. It never hurts to have a reminder around and years from now when kids don’t know who he is, this would remind them to ask. It would also remind the Apple folks to consider what Steve would have done as they make future decisions. I’m sure Steve would agree with that! š
Put him on a stamp. Something to honor him, sure, but make it something that lasts months, not forever.
Use this image on shop posters maybe, a commemorative range of products with a limited run-life or some simply give-away in the shops. But people in 25 years don’t want to be looking at something like this.
Don’t change the logo. Steve wouldn’t want it. We don’t need it to remember him.
The logo won’t look nice in smaller sizes.
Anyway, the idea is great!