Interview with the guy who named the iMac

Anyone fascinated by the mystique of Apple should check out the CultOfMac.com interview with a man you’ve probably never heard of, Ken Segall. His claim to fame? He named the iMac, and was in charge of that whole ‘Think Different’ campaign. With how ubiquitous the iBranding has become, I find it really interesting that Steve Jobs didn’t like the iMac name at all and rejected it on several occasions, but started using it anyway:

“He rejected it twice but then it just appeared on the machine,” Segall says, laughing. “He never formally accepted it.”

Ken Segall then worked for Dell of all places, and he doesn’t exactly go out of his way to praise his more recent employer when comparing them to Apple:

“Dell and Apple: It’s night and day,” Segall says. “It’s a transactional world Dell lives in. It’s all about numbers. Everything they say about Apple making products for themselves is true. Apple — it’s about changing the world. For everyone else, it’s about the money.”

He also has a funny statement on his blog saying that “Dell is a company that really wants to be edgy.”

Does anyone else get the feeling that this guy just wants to work for Apple again? Anyway, read the interview, it’s a fascinating look into Apple company culture.

CultOfMac: Interview: The Man Who Named the iMac and Wrote Think Different

Note: Ken Segall was kind enough to correct our post here via the comments, he never actually worked for Dell, only their ad agency. The interview is still a great read, carry on.