Designer
Susan Kare designed the visual language of the personal computer at a moment when no such language existed. Hired by Steve Jobs to create the interface for the original Macintosh, she invented the icons, typefaces, and visual conventions that billions of people now use without thinking about them. The trash can. The paint bucket. The hand cursor. The concept of desktop metaphor made literal. She did it on a pixel grid so constrained it resembled medieval tapestry, and the results were immediately, enduringly legible.
Signature Traits
Major Works
Macintosh desktop icons (1983)
The trash can, the folder, the clipboard. The visual vocabulary of computing, invented from scratch on a 32x32 pixel grid.
Chicago and Cairo typefaces
System fonts that defined the Macintosh visual identity. Designed for legibility at sizes where letters have only a handful of pixels each.
Playing cards for Macintosh
The game that came with every Mac. Proof that utility and delight are not separate design objectives.
