Back to #420 Steve Jobs In Exile, with David Senra.
What Did Paul Rand Charge for the NeXT Logo?
David Senra, reading Geoffrey Cain, says Paul Rand's price for the NeXT logo was $100,000, whether or not NeXT used it.
Steve Jobs wanted a logo and hired Paul Rand, a renegade who did things his own way and one of the most respected figures in American design. Rand believed, as Jobs did, that a logo should convey something essential about a company's value. He had created logos for IBM, UPS, Westinghouse, and ABC. When Ford invited him to redesign its logo, he walked into a room of 50 executives, asked who made the decisions, and presented only to that person while the other 49 watched. The first time they spoke, Jobs asked for a few options. Rand refused. He would solve the problem and Jobs would pay him. Jobs agreed to the fee.
Senra uses that price to mark a theme that runs through NeXT. Jobs had too much of his own money and too much from his investors, so he stopped watching costs. He later admitted they did the opposite of what they did when they started Apple. He told the staff to control costs, then spent with the champagne taste he had gotten used to. The burn rate climbed year after year.