from Mashable
Susan Kare is the master of making icons iconic. From a mere handful of pixels she has created small-scale graphics that have become part of the visual language of computing.
Widely recognized as a groundbreaking digital designer, the Museum of Modern Art in New York describes Kare as “a pioneering and influential computer iconographer,” and states that her icon designs “communicate their function immediately and memorably, with wit and style.”
Kare’s phenomenal career spans from the early days of Apple (as the screen graphics and digital font designer for the original Macintosh computer) right through to designing for iPhone apps, encompassing Microsoft, IBM and Facebook along the way.
We caught up with Susan Kare just as she launches her new print site Kare Prints (offering limited edition, signed and numbered prints of her classic designs) to take a look back at some of her most memorable creations.
Have a look through the gallery below for some highlights of Kare’s work, complete with commentary from the artist. Even if you don’t consider yourself familiar with Kare’s portfolio, we think you’ll be amazed at how many you recognize!
"This icon was designed to be seen when the original Macintosh computer was turned on. The idea was to create an image to suggest that the new computer was friendly and accessible. Plus a stylized smiling face is inclusive -- it looks like everyone."
"This font was designed from the start to be the system font for the Macintosh, and was intended to be somewhat bold and easy to read. For the most part it only includes horizontal, vertical, and 45 degree lines.
It served for many years as the Macintosh system font, and was used when the iPod was introduced. Its original name was 'Elefont.'"
"It was a challenge to come up with a symbol for the command key. The word is a bit forbidding, as are many types of images that instantly come to mind, such as a police hat or badge.
I leafed through a book of symbols, and came across a similar cloverleaf, which was identified as an image used on signs in Swedish campgrounds to mean 'interesting feature.' This seemed appropriate, and would lend itself to being recreated in a limited number of pixels, plus fit well on a squarish key cap.
Years later, I learned that it is meant to be a castle, seen from above."
"Although we preach that using too many arcane symbols can start to seem like hieroglyphics and defeat the purpose of easy-to-interpret icons, this font was developed for fun, at a time when the range of fonts was limited and enabled anyone to add graphics easily to a text document. This is the first appearance of the spotted dog image that came to be known as Moof the dogcow."
"Because I am addicted to solitaire, this was one of my favorite projects. The challenge was to make something well crafted and very recognizable for Windows 3.0 using only the 16 VGA colors. I also designed an assortment of card backs so the player could choose. People still mention how often they looked at those graphics!"
"Among Facebook's most popular virtual gifts were all the birthday items, and this was one of the first. The birthday offerings grew to include (among others) a number of cake slices, animals in party hats, pin the tail on the donkey, a tiara, birthday banner, cupcakes, and a pony."
"I designed the disco ball (titled 'Party tonight!' in the Facebook gift shop) at the suggestion of the gift shop's inventor, talented programmer and product manager Jared Morgenstern.
Created at a large scale in Illustrator, as were almost all of the Facebook gifts, it appears to have an abstract, cut paper quality at larger sizes, yet appears fairly 'realistic' at 64 x 64."
"This logo was requested by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to replace an existing, fairly complicated mark. It was designed to work well online, on printed materials, and on vehicles. The blue, green, and yellow colors are intended to echo water, plant life, and the sun."
"The chumby device displays a personal Internet highlight reel. The rubber charms allowed users of the chumby classic to personalize their devices by attaching them to a small affordance on the right hand side. They could also be used as zipper pulls and decorative charms for bags or phones or backpacks.
The logo is a six-legged octopus, selected as a symbol because it's compact, intelligent, resourceful and powerful. Both the logo and charms were designed to be slightly whimsical, like the company name, and they all feature the trademarked uneven sized, stylized eyes."
"Karma Jar is an iPhone app, invented by Dan Greaney, a longtime writer and producer for The Simpsons. It's based on a story about a Zen monk, who dragged a black stone into a jar when he noticed that he had a bad thought, and a white stone when he had a good thought. We wanted to design something that would be spare, but thoughtful and polished."
ha, i remember the happy mac from the macintosh classic II we had back in the day!!
ReplyDeleteold skool
ReplyDelete