Esc Computer Keys

Precious metal mechanical keys

Susan Kare

Susan Kare (b. 1954) is a pioneering and influential computer iconographer, renowned for the development of icons and fonts for the original Apple Macintosh operating system in the early 1980s. After graduating from New York University with a PhD in fine arts, Susan Kare took a curatorial job at an art museum, where she quickly realised that she was on the wrong side of the creative equation. In 1982, Kare began work at Apple as the sole artist for screen graphics in the Macintosh group. In 1986, she joined Steve Jobs at NeXT Computer as the 10th employee. She later founded Susan Kare Design, a graphics studio, developing humane solutions to design problems for hundreds of clients. She worked at Pinterest from 2015-2021 and joined Niantic Labs as a Design Architect in 2021. Kare's work is in the collections of MoMA in New York and San Francisco and has been exhibited at a number of international institutions. She is the recipient of the AIGA medal (2018) and Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum/Smithsonian Institution (2019). 

the designer who gave the Macintosh a smile

Susan Kare is the designer who "humanised" the computer in the early 1980s, best known for developing the distinctive icons, typefaces, and other pixel elements that gave the Apple Mac its characteristic - and widely emulated - friendly look and feel. During her years at Apple between 1982 and 1984, Susan Kare developed hundreds of icons, many of which are still in use and revered today. Her background in drawing, crafts and sculpture and lack of software graphics experience turned out to be an asset, allowing her to empathise with non-technical users of the new computer. Her contributions include many of the typefaces and symbols - such as the pixel icon "happy Macintosh" that greeted users on startup, the intuitive "trash can" for deleting files and the Command "looped square" symbol - helped transform the text-heavy computer interfaces into human, friendly experiences.