Behind the Icons
If you happen to be reading this on a Mac, take a look at the command key it was designed by Susan Kare back in the ’80s, a time when computer screens were often black spaces with blinking cursors and the mouse was an exciting feature. The ? symbol’s longevity is a testament to Kare’s prowess as a designer. She joined Apple in 1982 to design icons and fonts for one of the first personal computers with a graphic interface, the Macintosh. Instead of typing extensive commands to do even the simplest functions, the Macintosh featured a desktop in the way we think of it today, with representational icons and easy navigation.
As the so-called ”computer for the rest of us,” the Macintosh was meant to be intuitive and user-friendly. To this end, Kare designed the ”Happy Mac,” a smiling computer that greeted users when the machine booted up. (Slightly less happily, she also created the ”bomb” that appeared when the system crashed.) Her iterations of the trash can and folders that appeared on the desktop became Apple signatures. Her first typeface, Chicago, lasted through myriad interfaces, from the Macintosh all the way to the fourth generation of the iPod.
Källa: Behind the Icons
