Interfaces tend to be dry and functional, so how can we inject humanity into UI graphic elements?
In this short and informal talk, I explore the work of Susan Kare, the first graphic designer at Apple who was challenged with the enormous task of giving a personality to an interface.
Design your icons like it was 1982
I first discovered the work of Susan Kare while working on an iconography project where the Art Director kept asking to inject some personality into a set of icons with hilarious results which were, in spite of everything, well-received.
She inspired me to add a humorous twist to my design and to create messages which could be otherwise impersonal or - even worse! boring.
Part of this talk includes an exercise where participants are tasked to add personality to some well-known icons on a grid, using pen and paper, to simulate the 24 bitmap limitations Susan Kare had to adapt to.
