<story><title>How we got the unusual symbol used for the Mac menu command key</title><url>http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&amp;story=Swedish_Campground.txt</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>adimitrov</author><text>It&apos;s actually interesting, because Job&apos;s complaint about &quot;wearing out&quot; the Apple logo with over-exposure is a well known problem in design… and, well, propaganda, too.&lt;p&gt;The Nazis had a similar problem towards the end of the war: absolutely everything they produced was adorned with a swastika. They called that phenomenon &quot;Hakenkreutzkitsch&quot; (swastika kitsch)&lt;p&gt;Just to be correct, because fanbois are easily upset: I&apos;m in no way comparing Apple&apos;s marketing to 3rd Reich propaganda, instead I&apos;m trying to show that Jobs made a &lt;i&gt;very good&lt;/i&gt; call here: it&apos;s a well-known problem, an old one at that. You lose the power of your symbol, its special meaning, and recognizability.</text></comment>
<story><title>How we got the unusual symbol used for the Mac menu command key</title><url>http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&amp;story=Swedish_Campground.txt</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>philthy</author><text>This is not just used in Northern Europe it is sometimes used on American maps to indicate places of interests when there is already a heavy amount of key symbols used. This is a great read and its no surprise Susan Kare referenced a international symbol dictionary, a mark of a true designer using a recognizable and readable symbol for a very important command, a true genius. If you swap out historic with place of interest to &quot;copy&quot; it makes a lot more sense. I wish people would take this care in designing symbols today, I&apos;ve seen some freakish ones as of late on mobile phones, and especially touch devices. Have we forgotten a touch button is still a command button?</text></comment>