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Susan Kare, GUI Icon Design Pioneer (and What the Mac's Command Key Actually Represents)

By Rain Noe - November 25, 2011

in Graphic Design

Did you ever wonder what the "Command" symbol on a Mac keyboard actually symbolizes? Read on.

In the early 1980s computers were low resolution and icons were actually icons, as opposed to the miniature photographs they've become now. You had a small number of pixels with which to draw something representational, and it became an exercise in minimalist expression: How could you arrange a small series of dots to indicate concepts like cut-and-paste or a paintbrush fill?

One of the pioneers in this field was Susan Kare, a graphic artist tasked with designing some of the Mac's very first icons and laying out some of the first fonts. Her story is the subject of this fascinating NeuroTribes article by writer Steve Silberman. (The article is also the source of the sketches shown here.)

Once software was developed that enabled Kare to start brainstorming digitally, she mined ideas from everywhere: Asian art history, the geeky gadgets and toys that festooned her teammates' cubicles, and the glyphs that Depression-era hobos chalked on walls to point the way to a sympathetic household. The symbol on every Apple command key to this day—a stylized castle seen from above—was commonly used in Swedish campgrounds to denote an interesting sightseeing destination.

Just in time for the holidays, Kare has also self-published a book, Susan Kare Icons, a 160-page collection of her favorite icons done from 1983 to 2011 alongside explanatory notes and zoomed-in shots of the pixel level of detail.

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Luke

12 years ago

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@nym, @Sean Goss

Apparently, it was originally meant to be the Apple logo, but Steve Jobs shot that idea down and forced the UI designers to come up with an alternative. "Interesting attraction" was about as close to "keystroke for a command" as they could find; my best guess would be the difference between "go here to see something cool" and "do this to see something cool happen".

I imagine that's also why, up until relatively recently, the Command key had an Apple logo on it. Just a vestige of an old compromise.

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campground.txt
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Mr T

12 years ago

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The connection? What did rulers do back in the days when castles represented great authority? They governed the land within the castles and commanded the people.

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Sean Goss

12 years ago

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@Nick

I think what nym is trying to say is: it's very well that the symbol represents "a stylised castle seen from above", but what does a Swedish castle have to do with the command key on a mac? WHY was the representation of an interesting sightseeing destination in Sweden chosen? What's the connection? I'd like to know...
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Nick

12 years ago

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@nym
yeah it's pretty unclear... maybe it stands for, i dunno, "a stylised castle seen from above"
but thats just a guess
<\sarcasm>
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Abe Camacho

12 years ago

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Interesting post, but not getting an answer to the reason I clicked on the post is not so great.
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nym

12 years ago

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Well, now I still don't know what the cmd-symbol stands for...
disapointing post.
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Martin

12 years ago

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"was commonly used in Swedish campgrounds to denote an interesting sightseeing destination"

It still is. I thought, until now, that the similarity was a coincidence.
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