Susan Kare is an artist/graphic designer who created many of the icons that are universally recognized today in every photo editing or drawing software (paint bucket, lasso, and the grabber to name a few). These images are key in the communication between the user and the computer, and the design process requires minimizing and simplifying information.
Before getting her job at Apple, Kare had experience in various forms of “pseudo digital art” like mosaics or needlepoint, which could roughly be translated to bitmap. Some of the inspiration behind her iconography such as the “command” key on a Mac was taken from the Swedish symbol meaning “something interesting.” An old “Copy File” icon underwent numerous changes from the symbol of a copier to the image of a cat in a mirror representing “copy cat.” Additional challenges were present in abstract ideas like “undo.”
She worked for Macintosh extensively as well as Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook.
When symbols are meaningful and well crafted, they need not be frequently redesigned.
Susan Kare
She is currently using Photoshop and Illustrator for her designs.
Foundations of Art, Design, + Digital Culture 