ARTS 347: Designed with Kare: Influential Graphics of Apple’s Early Macintosh Computers Article and Project 2 Progress

This week, we read Designed with Kare: Influential Graphics of Apple’s Early Macintosh Computers, an article about Susan Kare, the creator of most pixel icons still used today. The article talks about how Kare's "big break" was when she came to Apple with a gridded notebook with sketched-out icons around the pixel-based design constraints. The article quotes Kare, saying she "loved the puzzle-like nature of working in sixteen-by-sixteen and thirty-two-by-thirty-two pixel icon grids, and the marriage of craft and metaphor. Bitmap graphics are like mosaics and needlepoint and other pseudo-digital art forms,” I thought this was so fascinating to me, maybe as I had just never thought how, back then, making things within the constraints of pixels would be done by hand and how she describes it as a puzzle or needlework makes it seem like such a feat that she was able to create these icons that weren't necessarily realistic but instead conveyed ideas to the user in such an understandable way. It is interesting to think about why these icons have stuck around for so long because of their usability and their minimalistic graphics that show a good depiction of what they do. Even though it was the 80s, Kare being a woman in the technology and design field during this time is very inspiring, and it's shocking to me that I have never heard her story before and known how some of the most common icons were created.

In class, we started making progress on our second project of the semester, a blue law ad campaign. Looking at blue laws in the state of South Carolina, I landed on the law that states, "According to the Juvenile Justice Code in the SC Code of Laws, it is technically unlawful for a person under the age of eighteen to play a pinball machine." I made this the center of my campaign and started then working out brand archetypes and personas to help solidify the voice and message of my brand. I chose the Instigator as my archetype as I thought it would be interesting to work with as it is an offshoot of the Joker archetype with the humor of the Joker but has a more good-natured but mischievous tone; they are good-natured mischief makers who live in the moment, enable excitement and fun, and bring it out in others at work or play. I felt this fit well with the fun and lively tone I want to have in my brand and the sort of against-the-grain vibe of old arcade games and 70s rebellious kids. After that, I began working on personas of people that would benefit from the spreading awareness of this law, including a vintage pinball and arcade bar owner who wants to make his business less geared towards kids and a mom of teenagers who worries about the safety and good decision making in arcades that to her seem too much like gambling and might create a bad influence on her kids. After this, I am now working on designing my billboards and brand slogans, which I want to be fun and colorful with a retro feel.