BARRIO – (CBS) – The Apple logo is one of the most recognized logos in the world. The artist behind the iconic logo lives in the South Bay. He is also a proud immigrant from Mexico City.
Carlos Pérez David was part of a team that worked on the original Apple logo. Steve Jobs asked the Regis McKenna agency to create the logo for Apple.
Rob Janoff, who was an art director at the agency, designed and conceptualized the Apple design, including the “bite”.
Pérez David, who was working as a graphic illustrator at the agency at the time, drew sketches of the Apple freehand that later became the final artwork.
Walking into Pérez David’s art studio in San Jose is like entering his own personal museum.
“Instantly it had to say, ‘That’s an apple!'” said Pérez David.
The legendary Apple logo is his most famous work of art.
“That’s what Rob Janoff, myself, and Tom Kamifuji had to do with this,” said Pérez David. “And now pushing $2 trillion, the value of what we did is enormous. It just boggles the mind.”
Pérez David drew the Apple logo when he was a young art director qt Regis McKenna in the 1970s. Before computer graphics even existed, artists had to draw everything by hand. It was Pérez David’s final sketch that became the famous logo.
“To actually draw that freehand with French curves and circle templates, and T squares,” said Pérez David. “But it’s perfect!”
Pérez David remembers the first time he saw Steve Jobs.
“I swear, the guy was a total hippie!” said Pérez David. “He was wearing sandals with torn Levi’s in a long white shirt that just kind of almost hung on him because he was so thin. I actually had to look down to see if he was barefoot!”
Pérez David said there is one thing he wishes he could have done differently.
“I’m certain without a doubt that if I would’ve known Apple would become a $2 trillion company, I would’ve said, ‘Steve, I will do your work for free! Just give me some stock!'” said Pérez David.
While he’s been honoured by his peers and his community, even inducted into the Mexican American Hall of Fame, most people have no idea one of the most recognized logos in the world was drawn by the very hand of Pérez David. He believes it’s because Latinos have often lived in the shadows, and artists have never been perceived as professionals.
But art is his calling, and Pérez David has dedicated his life to his craft.