Original color 22" x 30" poster for NeXT Computer designed by Paul Rand, featuring the cubic "NeXT" logo at center with colorful text below: "The sign of the NeXT generation of computers… for Education." Rand's facsimile signature is printed in the lower right corner. Rolled and in fine to very fine condition.
Having been ousted from Apple in the fall of 1985, Jobs founded the innovative NeXT project, a computer and software company aimed at the markets of business and higher education. The first NeXT Computer was introduced in 1988 with great fanfare thanks to Jobs's marketing strategy, which included this playful logo-developed by legendary designer Paul Rand as part of a $100,000 brand identity package-that suggests a child's building block askew.
In his original presentation booklet for the NeXT logo, Rand explained his design philosophy and his creative process in developing the now iconic logo. After selecting a typeface, he observed: '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.' Rand went on to defamiliarize the common word 'next,' by making the 'e' lowercase and placing the letters into a cube. In the final steps, he added color and demonstrated the versatility of the logo with its infinite scalability.
