Susan Kare

  • Pioneer of pixel art and graphical computer interface
Susan Kare

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Artist and graphic designer Susan Kare was born in Ithaca, New York, wanting to be a fine artist or teacher. In 1983, Kare designed the visual core language for the first Macintosh computer and was an integral member in the prerelease marketing campaign. 

When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1986, Kare followed him to NeXT, Inc. to become the creative director and the new company’s 10th employee. 

As an independent designer, Kare has worked with Microsoft, Motorola and Sony Pictures. In 2003, she was recommended by Nancy Pelosi to fill one of four appointments to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee to design coins for the United States Mint. In 2015, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited the first physical representation of her iconography.

Class year: 1975
Major: art; Doctor of Science honorary degree, 2001

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Recent Campus News

Oral history as democratic memory

Tiko Dolidze ’26, a senior at Mount Holyoke College, and Mariam Beshidze ’27, a junior at Amherst College, have been awarded a Projects for Peace grant for their initiative that will collect oral histories from Georgian student protestors.

Fighting food insecurity in memory of her grandmother

Mount Holyoke College student Oluwafadeyemi Testimony Akinkuolie-Ibidapo ’27 is an awardee of this year’s Project for Peace grants from Middlebury College. She will launch a year-round food pantry in her hometown.

Understanding science in English and Spanish

Cerebro 101 is an initiative led by Mount Holyoke College faculty Marta Sabariego and Nieves Romero-Díaz that teaches dual-language elementary students about neuroscience and behavior.