The Pixel Pioneer
How Susan Kare Gave Computers a Friendly Face
1
Apple HQ, 1983. Employee #3978 walks in — a fine-arts PhD who has never touched a computer.
We need icons for the new Macintosh. Can you make a computer feel… friendly?
— Andy Hertzfeld
2
I’ve studied medieval icons and Japanese woodblock prints… pixels can’t be that different, right?
Her first tool: a $2.50 graph-paper sketchbook. Each square = one pixel.
3
32 × 32 PIXELS
No anti-aliasing • Black & white only • 1,024 pixels total
The constraint was severe. One pixel off and a hand became a claw, a smile became a grimace.
4
The Happy Mac — the first thing users saw at startup.
No more blinking cursors on a black void!
5
How do you say “this file is gone”?
You show them a trash can.
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Lasso, paintbrush, hand, watch… a whole visual vocabulary.
🎨
🖌️
✋
⌚
Each icon solves one communication problem.
7
Jobs: “The Apple logo on the Command key cheapens the brand. Find something else.”
She found a Swedish campground symbol — a floral loop meaning “place of interest.” It’s been on every Mac keyboard since.
8
She also designed the Mac’s first proportional fonts:
Chicago
Geneva Monaco Cairo
Steve named them after world cities — inspired by a calligraphy class at Reed College.
Chicago later appeared on the first iPod!
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After Apple (1985): She designed the card deck for Windows Solitaire.
It quietly taught a whole generation how to drag and drop with a mouse.
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Her design journey continued through decades of tech:
💻 IBM OS/2 icons
🎁 Facebook virtual gifts
📌 Pinterest pins
🎨 Creative Director @ Pinterest, 2015
“Clarity over cleverness. An icon should be understood in a fraction of a second
by someone who has never seen it before.”
— Susan Kare’s guiding principle
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Her original sketches now live in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
AIGA Medal, 2018 — the profession’s highest honor.
12
💡
Great design doesn’t need high resolution.
It needs clear thinking.
Before people click, before they type — they look.
Kare’s icons said: this machine is for you.