Original Macintosh "Mister Macintosh Logo" Pins
(1983)

The following two pins are from the collection of Daniel Kottke and depict the original "Macintosh Man" (a man in a Macintosh overcoat) or "Mister Macintosh" logo used briefly by the Macintosh Division at Apple in 1983. Mister Macintosh also appears etched into logic board designs in this period but disappears to be replaced by the Macintosh serifed-font logo by launch time at the end of 1983. As Andy Hertzfeld writes his story called Mister Macintosh on Folklore.org about the origin of this little guy, the logo was designed by the Belgian artist Folon. Lets hear what Andy has to say below:

Steve Jobs often came by Texaco Towers after dinner, to see what was new, and we'd usually show him whatever recent progress we made. Sometimes he'd be pissed off about something, but other times he'd be really excited about a new idea. I was the only one in the office one evening when he burst in, exclaiming that he had a flash of inspiration. "Mr. Macintosh! We've got to have Mr. Macintosh!" "Who is Mr. Macintosh?", I wondered. "Mr. Macintosh is a mysterious little man who lives inside each Macintosh. He pops up every once in a while, when you least expect it, and then winks at you and disappears again.
...
Steve told the idea to the marketing team, and eventually recruited the (Belgian) artist Folon to do some renditions of Mr. Macintosh.

The eventual artwork for the Macintosh documentation and packging (and T-shirts) was reputed to be designed by another reknowned artist, Andy Warhol.

If you have any more information about these rare pins or other Apple logo memorabilia, please contact us.

Mister Macintosh pin

Rare pin showing face of Mister Maintosh

Got a cool pin or other schwag to contribute or a story about an item shown here? Contact us!

See Also:


Mister Macintosh logo as etched onto logic boards in the 1983 time frame

Our other Apple Pins and Badges

Go back to our main collection of badges, buttons & pins

Andy Herzfeld's Folklore.org coverage of Mister Macintosh

Our The Mac at 20 site which contains our complete Macintosh archives here at the DigiBarn.