Apple Computer, Inc.

Apple Computer boasts one of the world's most recognizable logos: a rainbow apple with a bite taken out of one side. This double-sided "Apple Center" lighted sign would have hung outside an authorized Apple retailer, possibly in Italy where it was manufactured, and represents the company's second generation logo – the Rainbow Logo – in use from 1977 to 1998. Coinciding with the introduction of the Apple II (See Lot 20), the Rainbow Logo was originally meant to symbolize the launch of the world’s first computer that supported colors. 

The first Apple logo depicted Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with an apple dangling over his head, and the motto "Newton...A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought...Alone" printed around the border. This design was only in use for a short period of time in 1976 before Steve Jobs commissioned Rob Janoff to design the greatly simplified apple design featured here. The inspiration for the bite taken out of the apple has been the subject of some debate over the years: Janoff has stated that it was meant to demonstrate scale and to delineate the fruit from another vaguely round fruit like a cherry. Others have speculated that it was an allusion to the groundbreaking mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, who died after biting into an apple laced with cyanide.