Incredibly rare original presentation booklet for the NeXT logo designed by important graphic artist Paul Rand, privately printed in 1986, 8.5 x 12, 20 pages, signed and inscribed on the title page in blue ballpoint, "William, Go change the world! steve jobs." The fascinating booklet concisely explicates Rand's design philosophy, and walks through his creative process in developing the NeXT logo. After selecting a typeface, Rand observes: "Personal preferences, prejudices, and stereotypes often dictate what a logo looks like, but it is needs, not wants, ideas, not type styles which determine what its form should be." He goes on to defamiliarize the common word 'next,' by making the 'e' lowercase and placing the letters into a cube. In the final steps, he adds color and demonstrates the versatility of the logo with its infinite scalability. In fine condition.
When Rand presented Jobs with the NeXT logo, he gave him one of these books and watched silently as Jobs perused it. Jobs later recalled: "The book itself was a surprise. I was convinced that each typographic example on the first few pages was the final logo. I was not quite sure what Paul was doing until I reached the end. And at that moment I knew we had a solution…. Rand gave us a jewel, which in retrospect seems so obvious." This is a rare and prized piece of graphic arts ephemera even in unsigned copies, as Rand is universally recognized as one of America's greatest commercial artists: in addition to NeXT, he created the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and many more. That it is autographed by Steve Jobs-a notoriously reluctant signer-with the imperative to "go change the world" makes it an even more remarkable and unique piece.
Accompanied by a detailed letter of provenance from the original owner, in part: "My father, Dr. William G. 'Bill' Kenyon, worked for DuPont, and was an organic chemist specializing in the precision cleaning of printed circuit boards. He was recognized as a world-wide expert in this niche field, eventually earning a place in the Institute for Printed Circuits (IPC) Hall of Fame…In the fall of 1988, I came home from college, and my father presented me with this very interesting booklet about the development of the logo for the NeXT Computer. He had recently met Steve Jobs at a follow-up event to the October launch of NeXT Inc., and had him sign the booklet for me. Even then, I knew this was pretty special, and have cherished his simple, yet direct suggestion that I endeavor to 'Go change the world!'
The process of designing the NeXT logo was undertaken by Paul Rand, a titan of graphic design, for the flat fee of $100,000. His design process for the logo from start to finish is clearly laid out in this development booklet, and Paul Rand's presentation of the original booklet is detailed on pages 219-220 of Walter Issacson's biography of Steve Jobs.
I'm sure this design process appealed to Mr. Jobs' fascination with art & design. Many people know of his fascination with typefaces, resulting from a calligraphy class taken during his brief stint in college, and the overarching effects that had on early designs for his computers.
The NeXT Computer wasn't quite the success story that Apple is, but it holds a very important place in the history of computing, as it was the workstation that computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee used to develop the first web browser and web server in 1990.
Eventually, Apple bought NeXT, and incorporated many aspects of the software developed for the NeXT computer in MacOS. This move also allowed Steve Jobs to return to Apple, and began the next phase of his visionary career there."
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