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

Mount Holyoke College celebrated the life and legacy of alum Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey ’59, the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Mount Holyoke students dove into the future, applying interdisciplinary skills to technology innovation by designing ethical AI solutions for real-world issues in the College’s first-ever AWS Generative AI Case Competition.

Alum Shoshana Walter ’07, an investigative journalist, credits her Mount Holyoke education with fueling her drive to expose injustice. Her book “Rehab: An American Scandal” details how a flawed treatment system fails those battling addiction.