Apple co-founder Steve Jobs filed more than 300 technology patents in his 56 years and more than a few of them were culture- and world-changing.

The Smithsonian, which late last year rebranded itself with the Jobs-like tagline “Seriously Amazing,” is preparing to spread out the patents and trademarks of Jobs, who died last year due to complications from pancreatic cancer, for all to see starting May 11 and running through mid-July at the organization’s Ripley Center, the Associated Press reports.

The exhibition will include “a 1985 Apple Macintosh computer, mouse and keyboard; a 2005 NeXT computer; a 2010 Apple iPod; and copies of 312 documents,” the AP notes. According to a press release from the Smithsonian, the exhibit — a partnership with the USPTO — will be a series of 30 4-by-8-foot panels that all look like iPhones and each holds the front pages of patents issued to Jobs.Continue reading...

The Smithsonian Institute is 165 years old and isn’t hurting for visitors: 30 million people come calling annually.

Even so, the organization's executive team was dismayed to learn that that “its recognition had dropped to 77 percent for 18-to-24-year-olds, and that 25 percent of respondents think that the Smithsonian is ‘elitist,’” the Washington Post reports. Too many people were thinking of the place as America’s attic, and a confusing one at that. As its Twitter bio reads, "We're not a museum. We're 19 of them! Plus 9 research centers & the National Zoo."

Time for a brand refresh. The Smithsonian set aside $1 million to come up with a branding campaign that G. Wayne Clough, the Secretary of the Smithsonian, hopes will show that the Institute's diverse programming and educational activities represents a “conversation, not a lecture,” the Post notes.Continue reading...