Susan Kare: Designing Icons & Graphics For the Original Mac

Video summary

Susan Kare explains how the Happy Mac, Chicago font, and Command key made the original Macintosh feel human and easy to use.

At Startup School 2026, Susan Kare recalls joining Apple with an art history PhD and little computer experience, after her friend Andy Hertzfeld invited her to design small symbols and typefaces. Working within the original Macintosh’s 16-by-16 black-and-white limits, she created Chicago and icons meant to make a computer understandable without a manual. The Happy Mac reassured users during startup; a bomb icon for system failure, however, frightened one caller, teaching her that icons need careful iteration. Kare explains why simple, memorable details outlast product-specific imagery, and traces the Command key symbol to a Swedish sign derived from a 12th-century castle. She also shares later projects for Microsoft, Facebook, Pinterest, and others, including Facebook’s dollar-a-day digital gifts, where cute designs—especially penguins—sold best. Advice from Paul Rand, Steve Jobs, and colleagues rounds out her lessons on visual thinking, constraints, and creative work.

Chapters

1. 0:00Making Things Meaningful and Memorable: Paul Rand’s Design Principle
2. 1:51How Susan Joined Apple: Andy Hertzfeld Recruited Her to Design Mac Symbols
3. 5:01Designing the Original Macintosh: MoMA’s Icon Notebook and the “Okay” Label
4. 6:35A Computer Anyone Could Use: Friendly Design in a 16-by-16 Grid
5. 8:26Creating Chicago and the Mac Typefaces: New York and Geneva Replace Local Town Names
6. 11:47MacPaint and the First Icons: Bill Atkinson’s Scanner and Kare’s Pixel Editor
7. 14:45The Story Behind the Happy Mac: A Reassuring 32-by-32 Startup Smile
8. 17:08Why Simple Icons Work Better: Universal Symbols Need Only Salient Details
9. 18:25The Icons That Didn’t Work: The Bomb Alert That Made a Customer Fear an Explosion
10. 21:23Designing Symbols That Last: Simplify the ImageWriter Printer and Floppy Disk Icons
11. 22:44How the Command Key Got Its Symbol: Borgholm Castle’s Four Turrets
12. 25:20What Ancient Symbols Can Teach Designers: Macintosh Emojis, Swatch Alarms, and Windows 3.0
13. 30:18Designing After Apple: General Magic, Facebook’s $1 Images, and Pinterest Icons
14. 36:20Lessons From Steve Jobs, Paul Rand, and More: Rand’s $100,000 NeXT Logo and Meaningful Design
15. 44:35Lessons From Steve Jobs, Paul Rand, and More: Apple’s Pirate Flag and Andy Hertzfeld’s Design Advice