If you have a Mac in front, just take a look at the keyboard to find it: a small four -petal flower -shaped icon that appears recorded in the Command key (⌘). It is there every time you make a keyboard shortcut.
You see it in the system menus, you have pressed it hundreds of times to copy and paste or make screenshots, but the curious thing is that Apple did not create it. And it was not even born in the United States.
Origin of the MAC Command key
The origin of the symbol ⌘ dates back to the Scandinavian countries, specifically to Sweden and Finland, where it was used for decades to indicate places of cultural interest or reference points in maps and traffic signs. It is known as “Symbol of place of interest” And he has several curious names: some call it 'Saint John's Arms', others compare it with a Celtic knot, a square flower or even a strength seen from heaven. But the truth is that Apple found it by accident.
It was the year 1983 and the Macintosh design team faced a problem: the graphic interface was ready, the menus began to take shape, but they needed a symbol to accompany the key that would give access to almost all the mac shortcuts. Steve Jobsthat at that time it was deeply involved in every detail of the design, he detected to see the Apple logo repeated everywhere. He told them something like: “I don't want to see our apple all over the menu!”
It was then when Susan Karethe graphic designer responsible for much of the original Iconography of the MAC, began to look for alternatives. In one of his walks through a book of typographic symbols, he found this Scandinavian icon and thought he had potential. It was simple, recognizable and did not look like anything else from the keyboard. He presented it as an option, and the rest is history.
The symbol ⌘ was adopted as the new brand of the Command or Command key, thus replacing the use of the Apple logo in the menus. Since then, it became an inseparable icon of the Macos operating system. And although many people already associate it with the brand, it is still technically a cultural loan of Nordic signage.
The interesting thing is that the symbol has generated all kinds of interpretations. Some users believe that it represents a flower, others see a medieval castle, and there are even those who say that it looks like a windmill. What is clear is that it has become one of the most recognizable emblems of the Apple ecosystem, at the height of the bite apple logo itself.
Today, the command key and its symbol are in millions of Apple devices worldwide. And although now we use it almost without thinking, behind there is a history of graphic inspiration, design decisions and cultural inheritances that few know. It is a perfect example of the detail that Apple takes care of its products.
So the next time you press ⌘ + c or ⌘ + V to copy or paste something, remember that you are using an ancestral symbol that was born in the Scandinavian forests, went through the traffic signs of northern Europe and ended up becoming a key piece of one of the most iconic operating systems on the planet.
