Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Top-level
Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

There's even variations on the rainbow, e.g. the Tandy CoCo had a variation, a red-green-blue graphic design

Badge of the RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer 2, showing a red-green-blue graphic design to signify the computer does color graphics
43 comments
Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

The Commodore 64 had it for its logo as well, at first only on the packaging but later as little stripes on the computer badge itself

Detail of the original North American 1982 Commodore 64 package design, showing a colorful rainbow gradient in the "64" part of the Commodore 64 logotype on the packaging
Commodore 64 marketing badges
Jason_Dodd

@thomasfuchs I've had quite a few c= addons in my day but I don't know what the added on the right side of that pic is. Guess I've not seen many boxes!

Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

@Jason_Dodd thatโ€™s a Commodore PET diskette drive; they didnโ€™t have the 1541 yet so they used that as a photo. Doesnโ€™t even work with the 64

Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

@jeffluszcz @Jason_Dodd for the first few months at least they didnโ€™t have the disk drives yet (maybe waiting if the machine is a success?), so they just threw some PET peripherals on the box (this box is for my Commodre 64 with serial #10550)

Gustavo :verified_paw:

@thomasfuchs I remember always loving the logo. What a machine the #c64 was! In the vintage advertisement you shared, I wonder how Dick Schwartz did on whatever he was working on with that tape drive, printer, modem, monitor and such.

Those pins are great to see, too.

avmakt

@gdlf @thomasfuchs
> What a machine the #c64 was!

Yes, not to mention what a machine it still is!

I've just been playing #Lester, a polished and thoroughly enjoyable C64 game that was released only yesterday, not sure it even qualifies as #RetroGaming ;)

Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

The NeXT logo is sort of a riff on the earlier rainbow logo, lil' bit more neon and a segue into the 90s

The Orange-uellow-green-magenta NeXT logo on a NeXTstation color (also has "color" in a rainbow), the NeXT keyboard, the NeXT sound box, the NeXT mouse and a NeXT mousepad
Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

Even some otherwise boring business software used rainbow color logos back in the 1980s and 90s

Lotus Improv spreadsheet software for NeXT package. The logotype uses a progression of yellow-magenta-blue-red-yellow-green.
Mark Shane Hayden

@thomasfuchs then there was DEC who used Rainbow branding ironically on their PCs...the word appeared in monochrome on the badge and without an upgrade they only displayed monochrome graphics ๐Ÿ˜‚

Rainbows were Very Important in the 1980s

WesDym

@msh It was not meant to be ironic, and I don't think people saw it that way. The term referred to its versatility, as it could run as a terminal or on two different OS's. It was monochrome by default, but could be upgraded to colour.

infinite_loopy

@thomasfuchs If you're gonna blow a big wad of cash on an instruction tome, go whole hog and print the cover in as many colors as you can afford

Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

ATARI logo on computer and computer software packaging on the late 70s/early 80s also used a rainbow logotype

Packaging for Atariwriter (word processing software)
Craig Maloney โ˜•

@thomasfuchs I really wish I kept more of my software boxes. Those things were magnificent.

Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

I may have to do a vinyl wrap again on my laptop

kaelef

@thomasfuchs Where did you get the wee classic Apple logo from?

rob

@thomasfuchs I had the same on one of mine a while back! ๐Ÿ‘

I think this is my favourite though...

MacBook with Batman decals on the lid
WesDym

@stokes I'm always amused when I see phony illuminated computer logos on TV. Those are mostly Apple laptops. While other companies enjoy free promotion no matter how it comes, you technically need permission. Many companies PAY for that, but Apple denies it for any case that might associate its brand with anything villainous or criminal. As a result, soap operas and such CAN'T use it, because that would make necessary ambiguity impossible for them. Apple's cutting their own throat, I say.

kaelef

@thomasfuchs Absolutely loved Atariโ€™s product design from that era (and also the earlier โ€œlate 70โ€™s beigeโ€ era)

vruz

@thomasfuchs I remember having read manuals of the Atari 800xl which were far more rainbowy than this. They may have been printed by third parties, but the meme was out there for sure.

gunstick

@thomasfuchs my Atari Falcon 030
The last computer that Atari created.

Sunil

@thomasfuchs Almost all Fortune 1000 logos now are San Serif black. Everyone looks like everyone else.

jeffluszcz

@thomasfuchs This logo always reminded me of the tripods eye from The War of the Worlds (1953) unobtainium13.files.wordpress.

joe

@thomasfuchs that radio shack font is just pure nostalgia

I wonder if a variation of it is available anywhere?

WesDym

@thomasfuchs The 'CoCo' used a television as the monitor. This logo references the RGB (red-green-blue) phosphor scheme of colour television screens of the time, and helps the buyer to understand both that it's a colour-capable computer, and how it produces the colour display.

Thomas ๐Ÿ”ญ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

@Supertapani awesome! I actually have a thinkpad somewhere, gotta dig it out.

ะšัƒ :emojione_v2_bear_face_1f43b:๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ

@thomasfuchs a while ago a friend of mine found this guy on ebay who was selling pretty realistic โ€œIBM ThinkPadโ€ stickers and bought a bunch that he gave out to folks so we can fix up a bit the lenovo thinkpads. It was quite nice. ๐Ÿ˜„

@Supertapani

OtherRetroMatt

@thomasfuchs well.. it was the way of all computer manufacturers to show off the colour capability of their systems in their logos. It's not exactly a defining feature of a system now everything does billions of colours ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Amin Negm-Awad

@thomasfuchs Well, this is no rainbow, but just RGB for color.

Jonathan Hendry

@thomasfuchs

Color TVs often had a similar symbol to signify that they were color tubes.

Go Up