Apple, as a brand, has doubtlessly redefined the design ethos of gadgets and mobiles, sporting clean-cut design directives, minimalist and elegant in their products’ overall design themes.
From the old-school Mac Minis to the latest MacBook Airs, tacky designs or too-loud color conventions are done away with concerns with Apple’s products, tuned with an added art piece value on top of its productivity and entertainment features and highlights.
Recently, a Gizmodo post has drawn a lot of attention in relation to Apple’s design directives, touching up on a design problem which Steve Jobs was reported to have spent a lot of time mulling on: Apple’s upside down logo.
With a story shared by Joe Moreno, who had spent nine years with Apple during Steve Jobs’ time, a revelation regarding the upside down logo came about.
Apple works with an internal communication system dubbed “Can We Talk?” where employees could raise questions, covering various subjects and themes. One of the most often asked questions was “Why is the Apple logo upside down when Apple laptops are open?”
The reason for the upside down logo turns out to be more of a “convenience issue” rather than a design matter: Since many users got confused over which side of the laptop was right, the logo was oriented to “face the user” when it was closed, doing away with confusing laptop users.
This design standard didn’t last though, with later and present versions of Apple’s portable computers featuring the logo facing the other end.
What’d you think? Was the whole upside down logo era an epic win or a fail for Apple’s design team?
