Susan Kare

Susan Kare (born 1954) is an artist and graphic designer who created many of the interface elements for the Apple Macintosh in the 1980s. She was also one of the original employees of NeXT (the company formed by Steve Jobs after leaving Apple in 1985), working as the Creative Director.Cite web
url = http://www.kare.com/articles/sjmerc.html
title = The mother of the Mac trash can
accessdate = 2007-08-15
author = Ron Wolf
work = San Jose Mercury News]

Background

Kare was born in Ithaca, New York and is the sister of rocket scientist and filker Jordin Kare.cite web
url=http://library.stanford.edu/mac/primary/interviews/kare/index.html
title = Interview with Susan Kare
accessdate = 2007-08-13
author = Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
date = 2001-02-19
work = [http://library.stanford.edu/mac/index.html Making the Macintosh]
publisher = Stanford University] [cite web
url = http://www.monell.org/Newsletters/Monell_Fall03.pdf
title = The Monell Connection, Winter 2003
accessdate = 2007-08-13
year = 2003
format = PDF
publisher = Monell Chemical Senses Center
pages = 9] She graduated from Harriton High School in 1971, received her B.A., "summa cum laude", in Art from Mount Holyoke College in 1975 and her Ph.D. from New York University in 1978. She next moved to San Francisco and worked for an art museum.Cite web
url = http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/vista/0106/kare.shtml
title = Designer Susan Kare '75 Gives Pixels Personality
accessdate = 2007-08-15
author = Janet Tobin
year = 2001
work = MHC Vista, Summer 2001, volume 6, number 1
publisher = Mount Holyoke College]

Apple Computer Inc.

Kare joined Apple Computer, Inc. after receiving a call from her high school friend, Andy Hertzfeld, in the early 1980s. [Cite web
url=http://technology.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4688619-110837,00.html
title = Technology: Talk Time
accessdate= 2007-08-15
author = Hamish Mackintosh
date = 2003-06-12
work = Guardian Unlimited
publisher = Guardian News and Media Limited] She was Creative Director for Apple from 1982 to 1985.

She is the designer of many typefaces, icons, and original marketing material for the original Macintosh OS. Indeed, descendants of her groundbreaking work can still be seen in many computer graphics tools and accessories, especially icons such as the Lasso, the Grabber, and the Paint Bucket. An early pioneer of pixel art, her most recognizable works from her time with Apple are the "Chicago" typeface (the most prominent user interface typeface seen in Classic Mac OS, as well as the typeface used in the first three generations of the Apple iPod interface), the "Geneva" typeface, Clarus the Dogcow, the Happy Mac (the smiling computer that welcomed Mac users when starting their machines for 18 years, until Mac OS X 10.2 replaced it with a grey Apple logo), and the symbol on the Command key on Apple keyboards.

After Apple

After leaving Apple, Kare joined NeXT as the Creative Director. She later became a successful independent graphic designer working with clients such as Microsoft and IBM.http://www.kare.com Susan Kare's Personal site] Her projects for Microsoft included the card deck for Windows 3.0's solitaire game,Cite web
url = http://www.kare.com/articles/nytimes.html
title = The Designer Who Made the Mac Smile
author = Laurence Zuckerman
date = 1996-08-26
work = The New York Times
publisher = The New York Times Company
accessdate = 2007-08-15] as well as numerous icons and design elements for Windows 3.0. Many of her icons, such as those for Notepad and various Control Panels, remained essentially unchanged by Microsoft until Windows XP. For IBM she produced icons and design elements for OS/2; [Cite web
url = http://www.kare.com/articles/Images/ID_Magazine.jpg
title = I.D. Forty/Susan Kare
author = Craig Bromberg
work = I.D. Magazine, Jan/Feb 1997
date = 1997
accessdate = 2007-08-15] for Eazel she contributed iconography to the Nautilus file manager. [ [http://www.gnome.org/projects/nautilus/about.html Nautilus File Manager ] ]

The Museum of Modern Art store in New York City has begun carrying stationery and notebooks featuring her designs. Beginning February 7, 2007 she has produced icons for the "Gifts" feature of the popular social-networking website, Facebook. [ [http://www.webware.com/8300-1_109-2-0.html?keyword=Susan+Kare Posts tagged 'Susan Kare' - Webware: Cool Web 2.0 apps for everyone ] ] Initially, profits from gift sales were donated to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, for the fight against breast cancer. After Valentine's Day, the gift selection was modified to include new and limited edition gifts that did not necessarily pertain to Valentine's Day. [Cite web
url = http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2234372130
title = Give gifts on Facebook!
author = Jared Morgenstern
date = 2007-02-07
accessdate = 2007-08-15]

Kare is currently employed by Chumby Industries, working to create the Chumby device. [Cite web
url = http://www.chumby.com/corporate/team
title = Chumby Corporate Team
author = Chumby Industries
date = 2007
accessdate = 2007-09-10]

References

External links

* [http://kare.com/ Susan Kare Official Website]
* [http://news.idg.no/pcw/art.cfm?id=036A275F-17A4-0F78-31FA8F2A2D16B712 Top 50 Tech Visionaries] (#45)
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1995/01/25/BU30113.DTL Art That Clicks: Icon designer strives for simplicity] - "San Francisco Chronicle"
* [http://www.kare.com/articles/icon_book.html Biography]
* [http://www.kare.com/articles/ForbesASAP.html Forbes article]
* [http://www.myfonts.com/person/kare/susan/ Fonts]
*cite web |url=http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/design_icon_the_mac_icons |title=Computer Arts - Design Icon: The Mac Icons |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-08-30