The most Apple thing ever: Creation of the new Apple TV logo. A few days ago, Apple TV+ — the video streaming service arm of the tech giant — was renamed Apple TV, complete with a new colourful logo. Here’s the twist: It is not a computer-generated flat 2D image. It is built entirely from glass and captured in-camera.
Every shimmer you see in the logo has been created by humans. There is no CG and it comes with music composed by Oscar-winner Finneas and a custom typeface developed in collaboration with Apple’s design team.
To see the video of the Apple TV logo being made in 2025 reminds one of how big studios once worked. The Apple logo and the “tv” letters are actually large cut-out pieces of glass that were mounted in a studio. On screen, you will get the sense that the logo is moving. It’s not. Instead, the camera is moving. Then there is a play of colours across the surface of the letters. There was a man physically moving the lights.
According to Ad Age, the reason stems from Apple’s Tor Myhren, vice-president of marketing communications, saying at Cannes last year that Apple values human artistry. Sure, the company is embracing AI tools but the human touch is very much there. It’s not just about one logo. If you browse through the Apple Music playlists, there is a human touch. On the iPhone, there are AI tools but not too many to distort the definition of photographs.
The new logo also has a hint of the Liquid Glass redesign of iOS 26. It’s a reminder of BBC Television idents of a spinning globe in front of a mirror. Even as late as the 1990s and up to 2000, the BBC used multiple idents featuring an actual hot-air balloon over various UK locations.