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Why on earth did they leave the apple logo off the front ??

familychoice said:
It’s about a four hour round trip for us here too. To be honest I might be tempted to do it if they stocked a 16gb version. Or Amazon...

I pre-ordered the Air 4 iPad on the Apple website on the day of release. It gave me a delivery time of a few weeks once available. That came and went, and when I chased them up, they said it would ‘probably’ be shipped a few weeks later. So over two months after my pre-order.

In the meantime everyone else seemed to be getting theirs. So I cancelled the order with Apple, and bought one from Amazon instead, who sent it out next day delivery for £49 less!
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The pre-order fracas with every product creates a bit too much of a will-I-get-mine-or-won't-I lottery for my liking, and it can turn into a rather sour experience. I indulged in it with the original Mac mini in 2005, and once or twice since, including the original Apple Watch, but this iMac is the first time since then.

I'm rather thinking I should have waited for them to begin to turn up in the refurb store!
 
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contacos said:
Do these stickers at least fit on the chin or was Apple not "smart" enough to give them out in proper sizes?
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Sorry, the included stickers are too large to fit the chin.

If you want a sticker that fits the chin use a small iPhone or iPad white sticker.

Or else buy colored stickers on eBay or Amazon:
s-l1600.jpg
 
kmj2318 said:
Copied from my other comment:
I prefer it with no logo. A $10,000 refrigerator has no logos on the front, but Samsungs and Maytags do. Nearly every product at Design Within Reach has no logos. None of my furniture has logos, I don’t know why I need my computer to. The logos are to benefit the companies, not me. I’m not looking to broadcast a company’s logo or stare at one all day. My favorite sneakers (Common Projects) don’t have a logo. Just about every Yeezy sneaker hides the logo where it’s hard to see, and the designs are iconic without relying on logos. Compared to a Nike where they slap a giant logo on the side, which looks way more pedestrian. A surface can just be blank imo. I really don’t know how a logo benefits me. Imagine putting logos on dishes, pots, and vases because the blank surface feels too plain. People who design products for the home usually know to put logos on the bottom and let the object just exist. When designers add logos, it’s to invade the users’ space with their business goals.

If you look at any image from Dwell or Architectural Digest, you’ll see no logos. These new iMacs fit in better with elegant home designs than the previous ones.

It's really not an odd design decision. It's a very clear one. I think maybe the preferences that people have for tech is way different for people's preferences for home goods, which is too bad. I wonder if people want their computer to feel more like a commercial product than a home appliance. Most people would rather have a stove that has no logos, though you have to pay more for those. Logos are to make me feel more connected to the brand, not to make the product better for me. Have you ever seen iPhone mockups, or early "iWatch" fan concepts where they put the Apple logo on the front of the device? Looks ridiculous. These same designers would probably put logos on refrigerators. Seriously, look around your house and see how many flat, rectangular surfaces have no logos. Go in your bathroom, chances are your sink, toilet, and shower have no logos (I hope, at least). And often, to have fewer logos in your home means that you have to spend more.

The main issue imo is just that people are used to it being there. Interestingly, no one feels like "something is missing" when they look at their logoless couch and ottoman. But when things that normally have logos don't, it feels like something is missing, for example, logoless watch faces give people that feeling, but imo it's only because people are used to having the logos.
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I love looking through DWR catalogues and daydreaming of, say, an Eames chair, although I always call them Design Beyond Reach. :)
 
kmj2318 said:
Sounds like you are in your own bubble. People who design products for the home know to put logos where people can't see them.



IMO, it's a pro-consumer move. All of your evidence for it being a strange choice keeps coming back to business goals. Which I think is the point. A standard refrigerator has logos on it, because it helps the company, not the user. A luxury refrigerator doesn't have logos on its front, you have to pay more for the privilege of not having logos. Look at any high end interior design publication and see if you can find logos in their images. Saying that hiding branding is daft is a silly thing to say. Would you say that people who design couches, desks, bookshelves, don't know what they're doing? The comparison that they are shooting for is a home product or high end appliance, not a can of beans. I don't understand the comparison. A can of beans needs to be identified on a shelf of many other beans. A computer on your desk is obviously your computer. You don't need a logo on a toilet or a shower either. You realize that Crate and Barrel and The Pottery Barn don't slap the logo on all their products? Do you consider that a bad move?

Aesthetically, I think it's pretty obvious what Apple is going for. Since you brought up packaged food...

View attachment 1776094 View attachment 1776095

Aesthetically, it's clear what Apple is going for here. For someone to be confused about their direction with removing the front logo is hard for me to believe.

It's hard to believe that you spent a significant amount of time in branding. Because it sounds like your concept of branding revolves around logos. Why is that Yeezy's are the most sought after sneakers and they have no logos? Or what about the Herman Miller Embody chair? Is it a mistake that they hide the logos? If your only concern is Apple's branding goals then I could see being confused about removing a logo. But, believe it or not, a lot of people don't want to have logos showing in their home, which in return, increases the value of the brand. It's funny how Herman Miller hides their logos, but gaming chair makers slap logos on their products, yet Herman Miller is still the premier brand with high loyalty.

I fixed the Embody, btw.

View attachment 1776110
Now I will always know that my chair is by Herman Miller, and I will feel positive towards the company for polluting my space with their icon. Also, the old one looked too plain, and you can't have plain surfaces anywhere in your house. Now it's obvious that this is made by Herman Miller, the one without the logo looked like a cheap knockoff. My next step is to redesign my Pottery Barn dining table. It looks like a cheap knockoff because it doesn't say "Pottery Barn" directly in the middle of the plain table. I need to be able to identify the brand of my home furnishings at all times.
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NGL, I will always find stuff more quickly in the pantry on the left, whilst the pantry on the right, though aesthetically uniform with its design solution, flirts hard with a Stepfordian/Gilead aesthetic I could live without. Instead, I’d opt for a well-designed pantry door to close and hide the staples within in lieu of spending time and labour regularly transferring those staples into nondescript, unlabelled glass containers whose form factors don’t necessarily communicate what they contain (e.g., “Is that the kosher salt or is that the refined sugar?”).

Admittedly, I remain squarely in the school of design thought that colour (especially primary and secondary hues) communicates as effectively — possibly more so — than sole reliance on form factor alone. Then again, I’m a sucker for the Memphis Group’s use of colour and shape.
 
kmj2318 said:
I'm not imagining things. This is a categorization framework. Apple said they wanted to make something that fits in with homes. I gave examples of home products that maybe Apple was shooting for. When I did, you react with "that's nove!l" and "....!", because I'm making cross-category comparisons (which is not novel by any means). You keep coming back to the category that the iMac belongs to. This approach is narrow. Not neccissarily bad, because it means that mistakes are rarer and it's a safer approach to design.

If I was to design something that would fit in a room like this, I would be more focused on how the couch, carpet, and decorations look instead of trying to adhere to the to the category. I know it's novel to draw inspiration from other categories, no one has ever done it before.

View attachment 1776630

It's just a different framework. Calling the decision daft with your reason being that similar products tend to do it one way ignores all the successful designs that did something in a different way.
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Daaaang look at that IKEA 1982 aesthetic…
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B S Magnet said:
It’s unclear where you get the idea that any of the iMac G3 models featured the  on the front fascia of the device. It never existed on the front of any iMac G3.
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However, the "iMac" on the front still function as a "branding". It's not the Apple Logo, but it state that this is the Apple computer named "iMac".

What's jarring is the complete absence of branding on the front, it's extremely "generic", like a "no name clone brand".

Also, like suggested by some, no it's not a "vanity issue". The vast majority of screen you can buy have some form of "branding" on the front.
 
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My 2014 & 2015 MBP 15" do not have any branding, Apple logo or name on the displays.

Guess Apple is going forward with that type of design.

I am quite fine with that since Apple has made major inroads for well liked computers and not having to "flaunt" it's a Mac...
 
Apple should stop spelling out Macbook Pro and Macbook Air and replace those with the apple logo. Apple is greedy plain and simple. Billions are being saved by not stamping apple logos on iMacs and on chargers for the iPad, iPhone and Macbook Air. Notice higher priced Macbook chargers e.g. 65w and 90+ w have the logo. Very short sighted greed at that too Apple has not reached a place like Mastercard where they can remove their name from their products let alone their logos but let them continue. The mighty have fallen before and will fall again.
 
/V\acpower said:
However, the "iMac" on the front still function as a "branding". It's not the Apple Logo, but it state that this is the Apple computer named "iMac".
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Even though you know it's a Mac because you bought it?
/V\acpower said:
What's jarring is the complete absence of branding on the front, it's extremely "generic", like a "no name clone brand".

Also, like suggested by some, no it's not a "vanity issue".
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LMAO you're entire post just stated it IS a vanity issue. There is no sound reason why the iMac name or the logo needs to be on the chin or anywhere on the front of the iMac. The Apple logo IS branded on the iMac, it's on the back.
 
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When they were designing the original Mac OS, the now familiar Command symbol was used for shortcuts specifically because they didn’t want the Apple logo plastered on there In every menu selection.

the chin doesn’t need it. It’s an iconic design at this point. It doesn’t need the logo.
 
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Maconplasma said:
Even though you know it's a Mac because you bought it?

LMAO you're entire post just stated it IS a vanity issue. There is no sound reason why the iMac name or the logo needs to be on the chin or anywhere on the front of the iMac. The Apple logo IS branded on the iMac, it's on the back.
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My point is that it's visually jarring, we are used to branding on computer monitors.

Almost every monitor you can buy has one, Apple is no exception to that.

It's like a car without any branding on it. It's weird. It's empty.
 
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snakesayan said:
It looks more elegant and minimalistic without the logo tbh. Less tacky for sure. When you compare to the old iMac, this one is an improvement and more modern looking
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We live in a world that that having a big logo on the back, a logo on the mouse and heck even a logo on the power supply is ok but having one on the front is now considered tacky. 🤣
 
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Maconplasma said:
Even though you know it's a Mac because you bought it?

LMAO you're entire post just stated it IS a vanity issue. There is no sound reason why the iMac name or the logo needs to be on the chin or anywhere on the front of the iMac. The Apple logo IS branded on the iMac, it's on the back.
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Could you give your definition of vanity? My definition of vanity doesn't apply to the post you are critiquing. The poster didn't mention anything about how the Apple logo relates to their perception of themself.

I guess the question I have is whose vanity is at issue. Are you saying that if Apple put the logo on the front, that would expose Apple's own vanity? There is a solid argument in that, if that's what you mean.

Someone has to own the vanity. Vanity is being used in a accusatory manor. Whom are you accusing?

The Apple logo is not branded on the back - we're not talking about a red-hot iron poker applied to a cow. By eliminating the logo from the front of the computer they are subtly modifying their brand. I'd be interested to hear from their branding / marketing folk how they view this. There are people in this thread who are reacting negatively to that change.

Branding works on the consumer's subconscious after the first few weeks of owning the computer. Every time you sit down on it, you might not feel like "I'm sitting down at my Mac", you might feel like "I'm sitting down at my colorful appliance". Apple is giving up some brand reinforcement or else they're trying to adopt "colorful computing appliance" as part of their brand.
 
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