MCAAD250, Spring'15

http://hyperallergic.com/194930/sketches-for-first-mac-icons-acquired-by-moma/

I recently read this article from the blog Hyperallgeric called, “Sketches for First Mac Icons Acquired by MoMA”. The post is about the exhibition called This Is for Everyone, which is comprised of the pixel art images designed by Susan Kare. I found this post interesting not only because it shows you images of the first icons created for Mac, but it also shows how technological developments can now be considered art. I think it is very interesting how the simple icons we see all the time were created very carefully to make sure that they can be universally understood. You don’t often think about whether or not the trashcan icon meaning delete or the scissors meaning cut text would make sense to someone in a different culture because it is so imbedded in our minds that that is obviously what they mean. It also shows then how although there are so many different languages and different types of understanding and yet there are images that can be made that everyone will understand. Kare took her inspiration for the designs from “familiar objects, history, and art” with some of the objects being exact replicas and some being more abstract and yet easy to understand the meaning. This exhibition also shows how far technology has come from the designs of images pixel by pixel to now being should high-def images.