You’ve probably tapped it at least a few times today without ever knowing exactly what it is or what it’s called; I’m talking of course about the strange, swirly square emblazoned on the Command key. So just what exactly is it and who decided it would be the symbol for such an important modifier key?
The shape itself goes by several different names including the Gorgon loop and Saint John’s Arms has come to symbolize many things over the past 2,600 years or so, but it didn’t become an icon part of computing culture until 1984. The tale states that when Steve Jobs first viewed the keyboard command list for MacDraw he was disgusted with the number of Apple logos – which at this point was the symbol used for the Command key – cluttering up the list. He demanded that his team find a suitable symbol to replace it.
Apple’s bitmap artist, Susan Kare, immediately began browsing for a new icon and stumbled upon the Gorgon loop, which is used on signs in Scandinavia to highlight a point of interest. She presented the symbol to the team, they squealed with delight, and the Command key as we now know it was born.
The history of the Command key “pretzel” originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 27 Jul 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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