The rainbow colored logo came about shortly before the launch of Appleís second computer - the Apple II. The bite in the apple and the rainbow colors were added after some consideration. And the new logo was a rather costly matter, but Steve Jobs forced the multi-colored logo through. It is said to be Steve Jobs who advocated that Apple should have a more stylish logo, according to several different sources, on the transition to the well known rainbow colored logo. According to the author of "The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer", Michael Morritz, Steve Jobs actually believed, that the logo could be part of the reason for the slow sale of the Apple I [3]. According to Owen Linzmayer, author of "Apple Confidential", Steve Jobs believed the logo was much too intellectual and wasn't suited for reproduction in small sizes. It's plausible that this is the reason, that Steve Jobs in April 1977 [4] asked Rob Janoff, art director of the advertising company Regis McKenna Advertising, to design a new logo. The advertising company Regis McKenna, wasn't picked by coincidence to design the new logo. This company had helped for example Compaq, America Online, Intel and other computer companies through their early years [5]. Apple II was to be launched on April 17th 1977 [6] at West Coast Computer Fair, so it was about time work on the new logo started. The bite of the apple According to Linzmayer, Rob Janoff started with a silhouette of a black apple on a white background, but felt that something was missing. A play on words that Apple previous had used in advertising for the Apple I, may have helped Janoff to the idea that a bite should be taken of the apple (playing on "taking a bite of the Apple", where "bite", is pronounced the same as the computer expression "byte" (as in Megabyte). The bite in the apple also meant the the logo no longer looked like or was confused with a tomato, Janoff has told [7].Bill Kelley, also working for Regis McKenna Advertising, remember the history of the bite of the apple a bit different. He says that the bite was symbolic of acquire knowledge (as a biblical reference to eating of the apple of the tree of knowledge). [8]The apple logo appears in this manual for Apple I, without the characteristic bite:  It should be noted that the manual dates from after the logo with the bite had been designed, but it is obvious that Appleís design profile wasn't quite in place in this early phase. Colors and stripesAccording to Linzmayerís book, Janoff added the colored stripes - green, yellow, orange, red, purple and blue - to the apple logo, because of the Apple II's by then, impressive color possibilities. The logo was in fact used at the launch of the Apple II. Bill Kelley also remembers, that the colors in the logo were there because of the Apple II's colorful possibilities - according to him though, it was Steve Jobs who came up with the idea with the colors and ended up specifying several of the hues. [9]The most expensive bloody logo ever designedIt appears that Steve Jobs was in charge of a large part of the work, designing the apple logo. It is difficult to print a logo in several colors, placed close to each other. The four color print technique, that is done in several steps, brings the risk that the different layers may be displaced and there by overlapping. Janoff suggested that the colored stripes should be separated by thin black lines, that would solve the problem and make the printing of the logo cheaper. Steve Jobs didn't care and decided firmly that the logo should be without the marring lines. For the same reason Michael M. Scott of Apple has called the logo "the most expensive bloody logo ever designed" [10].Jean Louis GassÈe of Apple once said the following, which sums up the thoughts behind the legendary Apple logo: "One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldnít dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy." [11]Here is the rainbow colored logo, as most of us have seenit, whether they've been near a Mac or not: The chapters of the history of the Apple logo:[#] The history of the Apple logo - a new series of articles at Macnyt[#] The early start and a missing graphical identity (1)[#] The genesis of the world famous apple logo (2)[#] The apple logo in the first printed matters (3) [#] The logo on the computers - a sign of quality (4) [#] Further streamlining: The stripes disappear (5) [#] Later interpretations of the logos meaning (6)[#] Sources to the history of the Apple logo (7)