Macintosh Icon Designer Reflects On Her Work at Apple

[petsounds]

the dreaded bomb with the numerical error code was a very compelling way to say something is wrong.....

Sometimes you could get out of that by getting into the debugger and typing "G FINDER". Usually you were screwed. Ah the joys of unprotected memory addresses.

Random anecdote: In order to run MultiFinder on my 1MB Macintosh Plus I had to hack the System file resources with ResEdit. For those that don't know, ResEdit was a tool that came with the Macintosh which allowed you to edit the resource fork of files. Back then, Mac files had a resource fork and a data fork. The resource fork held all the metadata for the file, such as icon and other graphics. There were benefits to that, but trying to share files with Windows users was always a disaster.

 

[the8thark]

I knew I saw her on here before, but she didn't get much attention then. I guess if it's posted on a competing site, it becomes worthy of the front page. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1303584/

I guess so. It's all about competing for page hits.

 

[dennno]

I disagree but to each his own.

I'm a programmer instead of an artist because I realized I was talented at one and sucked as the other... and I'm not trumpeting my drawing skills right now... also because I saw fortune in one and poverty in the other.

But you would see double the fortune if you could create graphics and program .

 

[the8thark]

Man, hard admitting that I am old enough to recognize (and have used) all of those.

I hear you loud and clear. I knew instantly what all of those icons were for too.

 

[mazz0]

I think they're kind of uggerz!

 

[tdtran1025]

Still love that startup icon. Far better than the apple.

 

[nzacl0]

you know i really still like those icons. simple. good design. as i get older i learn that new isn't always better.

 

[G4DP]

No mention of Clarus the Dogcow?

Image
Moof!
http://clarus.chez-alice.fr/ENGLISH/history.html

Hear boy, FETCH!

 

[ConCat]

Sometimes you could get out of that by getting into the debugger and typing "G FINDER". Usually you were screwed. Ah the joys of unprotected memory addresses.

Random anecdote: In order to run MultiFinder on my 1MB Macintosh Plus I had to hack the System file resources with ResEdit. For those that don't know, ResEdit was a tool that came with the Macintosh which allowed you to edit the resource fork of files. Back then, Mac files had a resource fork and a data fork. The resource fork held all the metadata for the file, such as icon and other graphics. There were benefits to that, but trying to share files with Windows users was always a disaster.

The resource fork still exists as an extended attribute. It's deprecated AFAIK though.

 

[tekno]

I was so lucky to get to work in the Macintosh group with great colleagues and talented programmers. That experience introduced me to interface design development and how I might be able to contribute as a graphic designer to the overall user experience. It also gave me practice in aiming to communicate big concepts in small spaces.

That sounds like a legal statement or someone's high school CV rather than an insight into designing for Apple.

Doesn't really inspire me to read further.

 

[roadbloc]

Would get boring VERY quickly imo.

The Macintosh was to sport one of the most iconic GUI's in computer history. I doubt designing the look and feel of the logos within that GUI was boring. I imagine it being rather exciting. And maybe a little daunting with Steve around the place.

 

[juannacho]

Reminds me of when this jazz was doing the rounds:

Is pretty cool, albeit perhaps only for a while!

In terms of designing icons being boring? Well, as with all design that depends on how you approach your job.

Take on each new pictogram as a challenge. Find the most distilled, efficient way to communicate it's message in a manner which transcends language and culture. If you can't find something to reward yourself with in that, then maybe you should try something else.

I'm perhaps only saying that as I've just tasked myself with having to create about 300+ of the buggers for a new project (⊙…⊙ )

 

[TheMacPotato]

The Bomb symbol popping up after the Mac had been rendering a video for an hour... ahh the memories

 

[sishaw]

So there is a person at Apple, who's only job is to design LOGO's???




FREAKIN AWESOME!!!

You're not getting the historical context. This was the first consumer GUI (I'm not counting the Lisa, which cost 10 grand and was pitched at corporate users). This was the first time this had been done, basically. NOW it seems boring, but then it was new ground.

 

[Garrod]

Those icons remind me of my childhood

Those icons remind me of my twenties.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

OS X 10.9 icons.

;-)

 

[bbeagle]

Would get boring VERY quickly imo.

'Would you like fries with that' doesn't get boring, does it?

Designing an icon is more than just sitting at a computer and manipulating a 64x64 (or whatever size) grid. It's researching about what to actually draw and what idea to convey. For example, 'I need a delete icon' might, after research, turn into a garbage can/recycling bin to drop items into.

 

[parish]

I guess that someone in this thread should be able to answer this...

Where does the "Celtic Knot" symbol on the Cmd/Apple key originate? It was obviously there from the beginning.

 

[bad03xtreme]

I miss Oscar the Grouch singing to me when I emptied my trash...

 

[GoCubsGo]

I am a designer. It gets tedious after a while, plus the fact of doing it alone makes it worse.

No, I don't believe you are. At least not in the sense of an actual designer.

That being said, you cannot put an umbrella over everyone who is a designer (or proclaimed designer) and believe that they are all the same. Some people thrive on working in complete isolation whereas others do not. It is a personality trait more than anything else.

 

[Squilly]

Not if it's in you and you love what you do. Doing an icons is a great craft. You have to say a lot in a simple graphic form.

What kind of design do you do? Gotta link to your work (serious question)? I seem to recall this thread where you state you worked a tedious 3 hours. 3 hours is nothing. That alone barely covers the concepts and brainstorming.

Not judging you, but the fact that you think 3 hours is a long time to design something tells me you're not at a professional level yet. Just whipping up things (and having fun) in Photoshop at this point. Which is great, but you have to keep going and if you want to become even better. But judging by your threads, you're more into engineering and what not. So not sure if you actually plan on taking design further.

To each his own.

I don't have a site.

 

[mrgraff]

I guess that someone in this thread should be able to answer this...

Where does the "Celtic Knot" symbol on the Cmd/Apple key originate? It was obviously there from the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_key#Origin_of_the_symbol

 

[Squilly]

The Macintosh was to sport one of the most iconic GUI's in computer history. I doubt designing the look and feel of the logos within that GUI was boring. I imagine it being rather exciting. And maybe a little daunting with Steve around the place.

You don't know if they'll be used on the next product. ie. You might be working at Apple as a graphics designer but you never know if your work will be used. Hell, they might throw out the entire Mac plan, especially being how fragile the company was back then.

 

[thefourthpope]

Thanks to Adobe Acrobat pro, the thinking wristwatch lives on!

 

[UnfetteredMind]

Kinda makes me wish there was a "classic" theme to OSX. Anyone remember changing the sounds of functions like emptying the trash? In the early '90s, I had Oscar the Grouch singing "I LOOOOOVE trash". For another, can't remember if it was the error noise or new mail, I had Arnold Schwarzenegger saying "Your clothes, give them to me, now!". So much fun!

The Mac IIsi was my first Mac. I wasted many an hour recording and editing sounds to assign them to actions. Those were the days ...