CY@CY Says Welcome to my dreamscape. Where a Lim is also a Ling.
A poignant tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs has turned a Hong Kong graphic design student into an internet sensation.
Jonathan Mak, 19, a student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University School of Design, came up with the idea of incorporating Steve Jobs’ silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo, symbolizing both Jobs’ departure and lingering presence at the core of the company.
Jonathan Mak’sminimalist logo in tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs
Mak said Friday he was overwhelmed and “flattered” after his minimalist logo in tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs caused a worldwide Internet sensation.
The design has gone viral on the Internet in the wake of the death of Steve Jobs.
“I feel so unreal,” Jonathan Mak, a second year graphic design student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, told AFP, after he was inundated with hundreds of emails and messages on his Twitter account.
The 19-year-old said he had received queries from newspapers in the United States and Germany about buying the copyright to use his logo and had been offered jobs after it spread like wildfire on the Internet.
“I am flattered by the attention but I would like to focus on my study before taking on any full-time job,” said the bespectacled student, adding that he was trying to cope with his new-found fame.
“I’m quite busy now actually as I’m trying to finish a school project,” he said.
Hong Kong design student Jonathan Mak poses with a symbol he designed to commemorate Steve Jobs.
When asked about whether he would be targeting commercial opportunities, Mak said he was considering contacting Apple on copyright issues because his design is based on Apple’s own logo.
Some merchandisers have reportedly used his logo for commemorative memorabilia for Jobs such as t-shirts and caps that are being sold on the Internet.
“I will consider using any proceeds I make from the copyright for cancer research, as suggested by some people to me on the Internet,” he said. Jobs died at 56 of pancreatic cancer.
The teenager said the Apple founder had inspired him in his design.
“He was a minimalist, which is the way I would like to emphasise in my design – fewer elements but a powerful message.”
“Steve Jobs strongly believed in his own ideas and continued with his beliefs no matter how people criticised him. He was courageous,” said Mak.
Mak, who described being “both excited and terrified” by the interest in his design, said he had received a job offer because of the design.
The design spread like wildfire online, drawing hundreds of thousands of posts. Commemorative caps and T-shirts featuring his design showed up for sale on eBay.
The logo was even used as the twitter profile picture for Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher.
“It’s been a crazy day for me,” Mak told Reuters. “I’m both excited and terrified.”
Mak, who first created the logo after Jobs’ stepped down as Apple’s head in late August, said it hadn’t made much of a splash until he reposted it Thursday.
“Originally, I was going to put a black modified logo against a white background,” said Mak, who paid tribute to Jobs at Hong Kong’s Apple Store.
“I just wanted it to be a very quiet commemoration,” Mak said. “It’s just this quiet realization that Apple is now missing a piece. It’s just kind of implying his absence.”
An avalanche of tributes for Steve Jobs are spreading online. Never in history have we witnessed such a massive outpouring of sadness and grief for a business leader. Watch this CNN tribute to one of the greatest icons of our modern world:
