Icons... the first most usable icon design - Susan Kare.

This afternoon I was surfing to web focusing mostly on icon design. There poped-up Susan Kare's website.... like usual i saw the portfolio (i believe in "see it to believe it") but to my surprise i ended up seeing some single bitmap icons.... like the ones you see in MS paint. i was laughing at the portfolio thinking to myself... what the heck somebody as actually dared to put stuff as primitive as this and claims that to be there portfolio... but to my surprise when i read the description at the base... it read like this "created for Apple corporation in the year 1983. I was like give me a break!. I got so hooked on i saw the entire portfolio and moved on to read about Susan Kare. Here's a portion from her bio data:

"Susan Kare received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in fine arts from New York University. In 1989, she was a founding partner of Susan Kare LLP. She is a 2001 recipient of the Chrysler Design Award.

read more at: http://www.kare.com/design_bio.html

If i'm asked to do a design (not just me all designers for that matter) the first thing I will tend to do is look for reference :(. I'm kinda trying to put myself in kare's shoes 24 years back creating something out of nothing... unimmaginable. I've become a great admirer of Susan Kare.

Awesome. I felt i have learnt something worthwhile... while sometimes you tend to get carried away with all peer pressure.... meaning whats your friend's designation in another company, how much does she get paid. we kind of fail to get in terms with the fact that all of that is just a superficial hype. I believe in good design, creative design and simple... similar to the ideologies of susan ;). Suddenly I felt a sense of confidence I can do far far better than what I'm doing. There is more to my career than just designations and money.

Got her mail ID from the site... I think I'm going to mail her and tell how nice i felt knowing about her.