Susan Kare revolutionized iconography. She created many of the icons (and fonts) that defined the Mac.
If the thought of the early days of the Mac fill you with nostalgia, I suspect you will love this video as much as I did. You might also enjoy this post, from a few months ago, sharing Kare’s notebook.
woah. quite a trip down the memory lane !
What a remarkable talent. We owe her a great deal, for UI standards that are still in effect.
I hope you realize you’re pissing on Steve Jobs’ grave by constantly talking about those icons Susan Kare did 30 years ago.
The man said:
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
But no, 30 years later, Apple bloggers can’t help themselves masturbating over Susan Kare’s original icons. What has she done recently that’s of note? Nothing.
And you’re all thinking that (unless you’re idiots, or you have ad impressions to fulfill, like dear Dave here), but no one has the balls to say it.
So, just what have YOU done recently? Nothing, of course–unless I’ve made an assumption (like you) about what you haven’t done–just because I haven’t seen it.
I was an eager new Mac user back in those early days, and I shared both the joys and the pains of using Macs to create art. The “joys” of “cmd-Z,C,V,X”, and the pains of so few pixels in a given space, as well as so little memory space in RAM and in storage media.
But the joys far outweighed the pains, and I’ve been joyfully creating with Macs ever since, and still looking to an ever brighter future working with whatever Apple will keep coming up with.
Susan Kare, like the rest of the Apple team, solved a lot of problems for us Mac users back then. And so many thousands of others have stood on her shoulders to make the “Think Different” Apple experience so much farther.
A professional ignores the bad and notices the good, the workable, in things, and incorporates them into his or her own work in order to acquire and/or improve an ideal scene. I was inspired by a number of things she presented, and am glad I had the chance to observe her.
Honestly, I’m scratching my head trying too figure out what did I say to cause someone to start telling me their stories from “back in the day”.
She didn’t invent icons, by the way. Previous GUIs had them. She just drew the ones the Mac had. Did a great job, but that’s ancient history now.
Grab any artist off the street, and they’ll do better than a lot of Susan’s recent work (which I know actually).
For the record, you should drop that nostalgia about the joys of few pixels. Honestly when I see people acting like this, I can smell death.
You know, I’ve programmed Apple IIs and what not, but I don’t spend my days rejoicing the good old days of 50kb floppy drives and what not.
It’s gone now. It’ll never happen again. We’ll never ever need low resolution icons again. Truly. Even our wristwatches are capable of retina pixel density and it’s time to move on, because we have a fresh batch of shitty problems to solve which are entirely unlike those old problems we’re wasting time reminiscing about.
Clean the cobwebs, look forward. Another Steve Jobsicism appropriate for the case.
You should take your own advice. From your tone and volume of recriminations, you seem like one sad fellow, stuck in your own past regrets.
I’m hooked, Daniel.
Please tell me more about my past regrets.
You’re right. No accomplishment is worth acknowledging for the role it played in allowing new work to improve upon it, especially in graphic design. Only new stuff is worth our attention, at least until it gets old.
She has taken good care of herself.
Oh there, they deleted all my comments.
I’ll have to add this to my past regrets.
As Larry the Cable Guy might say, “Now that there’s funny! I don’t care what you say!” Shoulda seen that one coming, huh?