Apple Logo Deconstructed - Photo from Apple's Identity Guide

I take this sorta stuff with a grain of salt, sure, it looks neat and all, but there's so much post-facto rationalization that goes into these things. In honesty, it is a lot of work, but it's also trying to present it in a way that makes the mark compelling.

at the far extreme, it's the equivalent to golden-ratio-vision that so many people have where they see something and then scale a golden section to fit atop it:

1: http://www.virtualprojectconsulting.com/images/monalisa.gif 2: http://www.laputanlogic.com/images/2005/04/14-10CYQHUUC00.jp...

At the humorous end of the spectrum was the joke identity manual for the new pepsi logo: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/in_brief...

they play the same joke on the mona lisa, too!

I worked on corporate identities for big companies (I made one for a Formula 1 team few years ago) and I can tell you that people don't even imagine the amount of work behind it.

I'm sure logos on 99design come with the same type of manuals...

Blogspam. Source with more information is http://www.flickr.com/photos/designios/498096263/ (see first comment)