LEMELSON CENTER — Susan Kare, Iconic Designer

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by Eric S. Hintz

Susan Kare designed the distinctive icons, typefaces, and other graphic elements that gave the Apple Macintosh its characteristic—and widely emulated—look and feel.

Graphic designer Susan Kare is the “woman who gave the Macintosh a smile.” She is best known for designing the distinctive icons, typefaces, and other graphic elements that gave the Apple Macintosh its characteristic—and widely emulated—look and feel. Since then, Kare has spent the last three decades designing user interface elements for many leading software and Internet firms. If you have clicked on an icon to save a file, switched the fonts in a document from Geneva to Monaco, or tapped your smart phone screen to launch a mobile app, then you have benefited from her designs. Kare’s work for Apple is featured prominently in the Silicon Valley section of the Lemelson Center’s exhibition, Places of Invention.

Read more on LEMELSON CENTER for the Study of Invention and Innovation

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