CUPERTINO, California — April 1, 2015 — Apple® today announced that the company will resurrect the original rainbow Apple logo ahead of Apple’s 40th anniversary of the company’s founding on April 1, 1976 and also as an affirmation that Apple, an American company, believes that America must be a land of opportunity for everyone, in a diverse rainbow of colors, including race, religion, sexual orientation, and more. Apple’s executive team and board of directors believe the company logo should reinforce that belief.
Apple’s definition of diversity goes far beyond the traditional categories of race, religion, gender, and ethnicity. It includes personal qualities that usually go unmeasured, like sexual orientation, veteran status, and disabilities. Who we are, where we come from, and what we’ve experienced influence the way we perceive issues and solve problems. Apple believes in celebrating that diversity and investing in it.
This transition will roll out over the coming year and be fully complete with the official opening of Apple Campus 2 in 2016.
“Our message, to people around the country and around the world, is this: Apple is open. Open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “I’ve had the good fortune to work at a company that loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people’s differences. We will never tolerate discrimination.”
Graphic designer Rob Janoff designed the famous six-color rainbow Apple logo in 1977 after he was given the now-famous direction by Steve Jobs: “Don’t make it cute.” The logo replaced an earlier, more complex logo designed by Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne who, along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, 39 years ago today. On August 27, 1999, Apple officially dropped the rainbow scheme and began to use a series of monochromatic logos – until today.
“The company I am so fortunate to lead has long advocated for human rights and equality for all,” Cook said. “We’ve taken a strong stand in support of a workplace equality bill before Congress, just as we stood for marriage equality in our home state of California. And we spoke up in Arizona when that state’s legislature passed a discriminatory bill targeting the gay community. We’ll continue to fight for our values, and I believe that any CEO of this incredible company, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, would do the same. And I will personally continue to advocate for equality for all people until my toes point up.”
The original six-color rainbow Apple logo will begin to reappear starting today in print, television, Web advertising, and on in-store marketing materials, later this month on Apple Watch packaging, and over the coming year in subsequent product packaging and within Apple software applications.
Apple believes diversity of life experience and ideas gives the company character. Apple is committed to the advancement of equality everywhere. For more detailed information on Apple and diversity, please visit http://www.apple.com/diversity/
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
Press Contact:
Siddhartha Finch
Apple Inc.
sfinch@apple.com
Apple, the Apple logo, and Apple Watch are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Bravo, Apple!
And, Apple logo, old friend, it sure is great to see you again!
MacDailyNews Note: Update: 10am EDT: Certain comments were held for 90 minutes. They have now been posted below.
Related articles:
Apple donates over $50 million to diversity efforts – March 10, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook met privately with Jesse Jackson regarding diversity – December 9, 2014
A message from Apple CEO Tim Cook on diversity – August 12, 2014
Jesse Jackson calls on Obama to scrutinize tech industry’s ‘lack of diversity’ – July 28, 2014
Apple working on bringing racial diversity to emoji icons – March 26, 2014
Apple scores 100% in Best Places to Work for LGBT employees – November 19, 2014
Apple joins Gay Pride parade in Austin, Texas – September 21, 2014
Apple releases video highlighting employee participation in San Francisco’s LGBT Pride Parade – July 8, 2014
April Fools, you fools….
Ron Wayne, one of the original founders, is a gay man and came out to Steve Jobs on before anybody had heard of Apple. The company has always been about inclusion, since way back in the day.
..April Fools?
When that logo was retired, what, 20 years ago now (can I be that old?!), it seemed dated and old fashioned. Today it seems fresh and wonderful again. Bravo indeed, Apple!
Ok folks, in my best camel voice…
“What day is it?”
Some of you gullible posters are going to have a long day.
Brilliant, MDN!
April fool? Bit late here in the UK but still got time in the US! lol
April fools?
Nice April fools guy!
You almost got me… 😉
I look forward to Apple’s marketing campaign in the Middle East. I can almost guarantee that they will not be so pro-homosexuality in Muslim countries, and that says an awful lot about how serious they are.
In the end, Apple will bully people opposed to homosexuality in free countries because they can get away with it, and in other places, they will duck their tail between their legs and shut their mouths. Please spare me the sanctimony, guys, and please understand that SELLING GENERIC ITEMS to homosexuals is not the same thing as forcing people opposed to that lifestyle to PARTICIPATE in your ceremonies or create items SPECIFICALLY endorsing your lifestyle.
This is just another example of Apple, Inc. going off the rails.
I hope this is an April Fool’s joke. The logo is very dated looking. I understand all the reasons behind it, but the current logo is better for today’s brand stamp. Find another way to support the cause.
The day Tim Cook evidences his diversity claim by choosing as his successor or including someone in high position, someone with strongly held religious convictions that gay marriage is wrong but who also supports the right of every American to choose who they love without fear of discrimination is the day I accept Apple’s “new” logo of diversity as a badge of sincerity. Otherwise, Tim is just an old fashioned hypocrite hiding behind a veil of inclusion. I’m looking forward to the day he proves he is not, because he is doing such a great job at Apple. And yes, I believe banning gay couples from a restaurant is wrong!
You got me!
The positive MacDailyNews Take should have clued me in.
If this was real, MDN would have responded with their usual reactionary drivel.
Here’s the thing: MacDailyNews did not post a Take on any of the Indiana religious freedom/Tim Cook activism articles. I checked. So, you’re inventing and commenting on your own fantasies. Try to get a grip on reality, okay?
I wasn’t talking about the Indiana controversy specifically. But since you brought it up, MDN being silent about it is very different being positive and supportive of Apple’s position on it. So not sure what point you were trying to make with that.
If you haven’t noticed MDN editors’s rightwing political bias, you simply have not been paying attention. They’re not subtle about it.
Please provide links to actual examples of “MDN editors’s rightwing political bias.”
Yeah, not that much free time on my hands. Here’s one:
– http://macdailynews.com/2015/01/15/obama-backs-government-run-broadband-networks/
Sorry, but I’m not seeing the “rightwing political bias” in that Take. Does common sense and logic = “rightwing political bias” to you? Are you that far gone?
While I like the multicolor logo better then the monochrome logo, this is a corporation, its CEO, and its employees trying to tell the public what to think and believe. Since Apple has 170 billion dollars and its CEO has over 500 million dollars, this isn’t good. Corporations are in the business of selling either products or providing services, they not in the business of telling people what to think or how to act.
Before you applaud this action by Apple, think how you would react if another business tried to influence what you believe. It is important to understand that it doesn’t matter if the issue at hand is right, wrong, good or bad, it is still a business trying to influence what the public believes.
Leave it to Americans, about 20 posts pointing out that it’s an April Fool’s joke and still…
Takes a certain thick stupidity to break out into a political mudslinging match at an April Fool’s joke but hey citizens of the free and civilized world you know how they absolutely insist on being the center of attention or else.
Watching them is kind of having April Fools everyday of the year.
Good move MDN, very well done. Thumbs up.
Perhaps you missed this:
MacDailyNews Note: Update: 10am EDT: Certain comments were held for 90 minutes. They have now been posted below.
MDN held the “it’s a joke!” comments for 90-minutes to let the joke play out.
Ah I did miss that, now it makes sense. Yes, I’ve had my posts held back here at times, and it can make it extra confusing.
Absolutely brilliant move to do that.
A big thank you for pointing that out. I love a good joke.
Some of us still just like the old logo better.
Just another reason that Timmy Cook must be fired!
You don’t know how close to the truth this story is!
Saw an Apple ad on the back of a magazine this week supporting the HRC and it’s mission. The logo was a white apple/leaf outlined with the rainbow colors, red outside moving to purple on the inside.
Headline text read “Equality and diversity make us stronger.”
I woke up today lamenting that MacUser isn’t still around to publish one of its wonderful April 1st articles. I remember the classic one advising that putting Lemon Pledge on your hard drive platens would result in significant speed increases. Thank you for carrying on the tradition.
Maybe a joke, but it would be great to see that logo in action.
I too still have a pretty diverse collection of rainbow-six apple logos, big and small decals, tie pins, coffee mugs, t-shirts, etc. The branding was brilliant, but there was a catch.
Producing the original six colour logo, especially at smaller sizes was a nightmare.
As graphic design goes, this logo broke several rules-of-thumb.
First, brand identity should be tied to one or two signature or identity colours. Think Coca-Cola red, FedEx orange-and-purple, etc. Six colours?
Second, logo should work monochromatically, i.e just black, and still retain it’s fidelity and identity. Well, it does do that, but if the logo is printed in just black, should it have six shades of grey? Apple’s rules said no.
Printer’s had two choices as to how to print this logo – four-colour process, or six Pantone(PMS) spot colours, neither was optimal. The six PMS version was preferred by Apple, but was considerably more expensive and difficult to do, especially at small sizes. Though the four-colour version was cheaper, it too was difficult to reproduce at small sizes.
Why is it so difficult to print? Because of problems getting all six elements to register perfectly with each other. In other words, you could not have colours overlapping or with gaps – it had to be perfect. Rumor has it Steve Jobs was aware of this difficulty, but insisted that with truly skilled artisans, this would not be an issue. Ah Steve, forever the perfectionist.
This led to Apple making concessions for some printing purposes. It was okay to print the logo in specific PMS single colours – red, grey, and black, especially on business cards and other high-volume, mass produced printing.
Using six colours was also more environmentally unfriendly than single, often vegetable-based colours instead of the heavy-metal pigments used in some PMS inks.
As much as I love the rainbow-six design, I was never happier than when Apple finally settled on the current monochrome rendering – which happened right around the time Steve returned to Apple.
Option-K forever!
dmz
Oops. That should read “Shift-Option-K Forever”
dmz
Oh man. The excruciatingly detailed directions on reproducing the name and logo were amazing! As an Apple Reseller in the 80’s and 90’s, I had to set layouts for ads and signs a lot. I tried to avoid ever using color if possible. Imagine the pains of getting store signs made correctly. Contractors thought I was the most anal person alive, just from reading them from the spec sheets.
Newspapers were impossible. Magazines were difficult. The web – no problem. It’s still difficult to print, even with our more-precise-than-ever modern printing technologies.
dmz
April Fools, but if it were true… I’d stop buying Apple. I won’t have a company dictate my conscience to me, ever.
No one can dictate your conscience, everyone is entitled to their opinion. There’s nothing wrong with supporting diversity. if they were supporting eradication of a race or a specific species then i suppose there’s a reason to spread awareness. As to this article whether it’s true or not its supporting diversity. If it does not agree with one’s point of view it does not mean that is dictating you how to think or feel. You must be pretty empty to have an article dictate your conscience.
Waiting for samsung’s answer… 3…2…1…
Ha, that made me laugh! That’s about how pathetic and transparent they’ve become with their copying.