
The Woman Behind Apple's First Icons - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/the-woman-behind-apples-first-icons/
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Theodores
Does anyone know what Kare did for SGI, as in 'Silicon Graphics'? I had her
down as having designed the icons for the 'Indigo Magic Desktop' however there
is barely a mention on the web.

For those that can't quite remember, the SGI icons were special in that they
were vector rather than bitmap. They were also a lot more classy and polished
than any other icons available anywhere else, at the time the SGI desktop was
deluxe compared to normal computers, and I thought Susan Kare's work was part
of this now forgotten chapter.

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zackcrockett
Theodore - I reached out and asked her for you. I'll edit her response in here
when she replies!

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Theodores
Excellent! Thankyou!

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zackcrockett
She confirms she worked on the Indigo Magic Desktop (mainly designing icons),
but says she can't recall the exact scope of her work: "It was LONG ago but I
will see if I can dig it up...sorry not to be able to summon this up!"

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Theodores
Thanks for that!

The SGI icons gave much better feedback with animations when you clicked on
them, they had quaint drop shadows, let you know if they were open already and
showed if they were links or not. They had so much going for them. Someone,
e.g. at Canonical, should revisit this aspect of the SGI desktop and ask Susan
Kare to apply her touch to something new yet derived from the SGI work. Just
having her name to an Ubuntu desktop would win over design snobs who don't see
whatever you get on Linux as 'design worthy'.

Do keep me updated as I still believe everything SGI was the best ever.
Thanks!

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Someone
Her site: [http://www.kare.com](http://www.kare.com)

Tangentially related: does anybody know whether the icons from the icon garden
([http://icongarden.jory.org](http://icongarden.jory.org)) still exist?

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zackcrockett
For those who may not know:

Apple commissioned eight two-dimensional sculptures for its R&D campus front
lawn in 1993. Officially, the "icon garden" fulfilled an agreement to have art
in Apple's front park (and paid homage to Susan Kare). Shortly after Steve
Jobs returned in 1997, he stripped the garden.

As for where the icons ended up: it's anyone's guess! There really isn't any
conclusive info on this, and most people fall back on one of three non-
definitive theories:

a) They were scrapped. b) They're archived somewhere. c) Chuck Norris.

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eddieroger
The answer is d, all of the above. I saw a few still hanging around 1 Infinite
Loop last time I was there (September, but no pics, so it didn't happen), and
apparently Dogcow is in a Cupertino garage, according to WWDC 2013's Stump the
Experts. Also, Chuck Norris.

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MaxGabriel
To clarify, one of the panelists on Stump the Experts said they have (just
Dogcow? I don't remember) in their garage, which they used to answer a
question about how many pixels are on one of the statues.

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eddieroger
If memory serves, it was just Dogcow. But right, it was pretty passive that he
had it, and part of the question's answer. Fun night.

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adamisen
The dogcow's name is Clarus.

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wtbob
I don't think very many folks realise just how much of the look & feel of the
early Macs either came from Susan Kare or was inspired by her (in my
estimation: almost all of it). She had a real gift for using the limitations
of small icons and no colour to produce amazing and evocative art.

In a lot of ways, I miss those old days of large B&W pixels. Kinda like the
rules of a sonnet, they enabled artists like Kare to create beauty.

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lostlogin
I wondered about the story behind the John Siracusa T-Shirt copyright drama
that occurred last year. [http://www.marco.org/2013/06/21/hypercritical-
shirts2](http://www.marco.org/2013/06/21/hypercritical-shirts2)

Does this artist have a connection to that?

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MBCook
It's quite possible.

It's too bad as the original icon was my favorite thing about the shirt. Since
a Macintosh was basically my first computer it meant a lot to me.

I still bought the shirt with the updated icon as I wanted to support John and
it was still pretty nice.

But I would've loved to have the original icon on it.

~~~
leoc
Probably; who else could it be?

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devindotcom
Always good to read about Kare-related stuff. Working in monochrome and very
low resolution is something I think every visual designer should try at least
once, if only as an intellectual exercise. It's a bit like trying to write
without adjectives or painting without white.

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patrickg_zill
I like Susan Kare's work. But I think the under-rated talent is Keith Ohlfs,
who was behind NeXT's beautiful and functional UI and icons, and who later
went on to do a lot of other interesting stuff, including the UI for WebTV as
well.

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whoopdedo
I never noticed before that the Sad Mac's frown is asymmetrical. That
certainly lends to its unpleasantness.

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alexmayyasi
Does anyone see a cow when they look at Clarus the dogcow? I see a dog all the
way.

~~~
Someone
But when you hear her ([http://clarus.chez-
alice.fr/Museum/Apple/The.Dogcow.moof.wav](http://clarus.chez-
alice.fr/Museum/Apple/The.Dogcow.moof.wav)), it is a dog or a cow? (that site
is great and ridiculous, by the way. It, for example, leads to
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/37996642651@N01/5641577018](https://www.flickr.com/photos/37996642651@N01/5641577018)
(NSFW))

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WiseWeasel
Wow, you're so right! I never would have heard this classic song had it not
been for that site:

[https://archive.org/details/MaxGizmo512K](https://archive.org/details/MaxGizmo512K)

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Youpinadi
You can find pixel art from Suzan here: [http://www.stickaz.com/en/58-susan-
kare](http://www.stickaz.com/en/58-susan-kare)

~~~
peqjuli
Loved them. Thanks for sharing the link.

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travisl12
It's such a romantic story, the early days of Apple and the creation of the
imagery that countless News Hacker readers grew up seeing.

I often think to myself "what a time that must have been!". But then I think
to myself "I am living in that time right now!". We are always able to start
our own romantic story that will be told in the years to come.

Let's go design!

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rednukleus
I like almost all of her icons, but I can't stand the command icon. It doesn't
obviously relate to its meaning and its difficult to describe in words to
someone else. It causes so much confusion. I can see why Jobs didn't want to
use the Apple icon any more, but I can't think of an icon I dislike more than
what they replaced it with.

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yiedyie
I am amazed at the portrait of Steve Jobs, in so few pixels is still
recognizable, I think here the true talent shows.

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72deluxe
Fantastic Domo icons.

Related to quality icons, I came across a really well drawn icon on Mac OSX in
the EasyFind application. I emailed them and asked who drew it and they told
me, if only I could remember who he was! I think he was a chap in Canada.
Really quality icon.

