It looks like the modern Mac icon—which was originally created in 1997 and it’s the current Finder’s icon—was inspired by Picasso 1934’s Two Characters. It’s likely a coincidence, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Apple and Picasso go way back:
This is the original Mac icon. It was nicknamed the Picasso Mac, although it wasn’t created by the Spanish genius. While it was inspired by his work, the design was made by Tom Hughes and John Casado, who were art directors on the original Macintosh developement team.
Steve Jobs wasn’t very impressed, but it became the graphic symbol for the Mac, featured in the packaging, manuals and in every old Mac’s Welcome to Macintosh screen, which was displayed as the operating system loaded into memory, just before the extension icons marched on the bottom of the screen.
Later—with the introduction of System 7.5.1—that welcome screen image changed to the “Happy Mac” blue icon. “Welcome to Mac OS” it said, which made fanboys sad.
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Facendo riferimento a questa riga di Twitter e alle molte mail ricevute a cui si è risposto in modestissima parte, si comunica che per ora non si fanno commenti sulla vicenda :-)