Rob Janoff is an American

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for publishe ...

corporate logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

s and identities, printed advertisements and television commercials. He is known for his creation of the

Apple logo Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

. In 1977, Janoff worked for

Regis McKenna Regis McKenna has been an influential marketer in tech and introduced some techniques today commonplace among advertisers. He and his firm covered the first microprocessor (Intel Corporation), Apple's first personal computer (Apple Computer), the ...

as an art director and was tasked to design the logo for

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

, creating an apple with a bite out of it, included so that people did not mistake the apple for a cherry or another fruit.Interview with Rob Janoff
CreativeBits Design Community The colored stripes in the logo were to indicate that Apple machines had color screens. Each stripe was printed in its own specially mixed color, which Jobs approved because he felt the more vivid colors improved people's emotional response. Rob also created ads and printed materials for Apple. The basic design of his Apple logo is still in use by the company today, but it has had many elements changed along the way. Later he did design work for both IBM and

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

Early life

Janoff was born and raised in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

. He obtained his degree from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

where he initially majored in industrial design. After later realizing that this was not the area of study he was particularly interested in, Janoff then focused on graphic design.

Career

In 1970, upon graduating from

, Janoff began working for a number of small Silicon Valley agencies. In 1977, he joined

located in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was ...

. While working in this position, he was chosen to design the corporate identity package for

. Janoff later worked for agencies established in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and Chicago such as Chiat/Day where he designed print, TV advertising and branding for numerous national and international clients. Over the past six years he has established a digital agency with his Australian business partner, Joel Bohm. While residing in Chicago, Rob Janoff travels extensively as part of his work creating branding outcomes for companies across a broad range of industries. He is also a speaker who has delivered keynote addresses and classes in design for universities and academic facilities, including the Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus.

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2018/03/26/rob-janoff-and-the-fascinating-true-story-behind-his-original-apple-logo-design/

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Janoff, Rob Logo designers Living people People from Culver City, California Year of birth missing (living people)