The origin and hidden meaning of Steve Job’s Apple logo

Steve Jobs, the big man behind electronics company Apple, named his brand after his favourite fruit. So they say. After completing his secondary education, Steve worked in an apple orchard. Years later, he could sometimes live for weeks on end on a strict diet of only one type of food; apples, for example.

Others claim that the apple refers to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Bible (Genesis 2:17), and therefore symbolises knowledge and lust. Or it could be a reference to the pioneering work of Isaac Newton and the realisation of a dream that Steve Jobs wanted to fulfil. A more mysterious story is that the apple refers to Alan Turing, known for cracking the code of the German Enigma machine. Turing committed suicide in 1954 by eating a poisoned apple. Snow White suffered a similar fate thanks to the apple of the wicked witch/queen. And yes, a bite from the apple sounds the same as a computer byte. But are these really the reasons?

Since its introduction in 1976, Apple’s logo has only been changed once. It started with an illustration of Isaac Newton under the famous apple tree, and the design also included a quote from the English poet William Wordsworth: ‘Newton… a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought’. For a logo, this was well thought out, but Steve Jobs was not 100% satisfied and decided to have the logo restyled by Rob Janoff in 1977; the focus had to be more on the apple. Rob Janoff denied all wild theories about the meaning of the apple. He only took the bite out of the apple so that the shape did not look too much like a cherry. However, that still does not explain why Steve Jobs chose an apple as his brand name.

I have discovered that Steve Jobs is inextricably linked with the apple. He simply had no choice but to choose an apple as the symbol for his brand. Why? Because it is hidden in his name: Steve Jobs is an anagram of St. Eve’s Job.

The bite from the apple was the work that made the Biblical Eve famous: it was St. Eve’s Job. The (first born) woman or feminity is a symbol of attraction (magnetism), that natural force that Apple uses today to market their products.

I think Steve Jobs knew about this letter puzzle all the time, although we will never hear from him again. But maybe one day… we will hear about it from his youngest daughter, whom he named Eve?