McInnes K. Rockstar Icon Designer
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A Brief History of Computer Icons11
The icons have various states that are indicated by levels of pixel
shading and display an active state when clicked. The Xerox
Star’s design features — specically the considerations for user
experience and visual feedback — have stood-up to the test
of time, and continue to be an excellent example of design and
usability.
1983 Apple Lisa
Development of the Apple Lisa started in 1978. At the time Steve
Jobs (CEO of Apple) was on the Lisa development team. After
a tour of the Xerox PARC facilities in 1979 Jobs was heavily
inuenced by what he had seen and quickly negotiated for the
Lisa team to have two demonstrations of the Alto. After the
demonstrations the Lisa development team was able to reconstruct
the basic elements of a GUI and adapt its use for a commercial
The Xerox Star has carefully designed icons that create smooth lines
against the halftone background of the User Interface.
A Brief History of Computer Icons12
audience. Hoping to carve a niche in the personal computing
market, Apple saw the value of the ofce metaphor as a means to
make navigation easier for new users. Lisa was an advanced GUI
for the time as it had movable “Desk Accessories” (early Widgets),
drop-down menus and folder based directories. The Lisa icons are
similar to the Xerox designs, but they lack the visual balance that
was achieved at PARC.
1984 Apple Macintosh 1.0
In 1982, Steve Jobs left the Lisa project and joined the Macintosh
team. A year after Lisa was launched the Apple Macintosh 1.0 was
released. The Macintosh 1.0 introduced drag and drop le copying,
movable windows and specially rendered icons. The Macintosh
icons were designed by Graphic Artist Susan Kare who is thought
to be one of the masters of icon design.
Kare brought a sophistication to icons and digital fonts that
hadn’t been seen before. Paying special attention to metaphor,
visual balance and usability, Kare designed some of today’s most
recognized icons. Most notable of these designs are the MacPaint
interface, the Paint Bucket and the Smiling Mac. Kare’s philosophy
on icon design is simple, “I believe that good icons are more akin
Apple's first attempt at icon design, based on designs seen at Palo Alto
Research Centre in 1979.
A Brief History of Computer Icons13
to road signs rather than illustrations, and ideally should present
an idea in a clear, concise, and memorable way. I try to optimize
for clarity and simplicity even as palette and resolution options
have increased.” This philosophy is at the core of Apple’s early
commercial success.
1985 Atari TOS
It’s important to note that the GUI was not only for the Apple
systems. The Atari ST had an operating system called TOS which
had a somewhat smaller user interface than the Apple computers
but it used a desktop metaphor, which by 1985 had become a
computer standard. It’s interesting to note that the TOS icons make
use of Planometric perspective to reinforce their meaning. You will
learn more about Planometric and Isometric rendering styles on
page page 109 of this book.
Classic Macintosh Icons Designed by Artist Susan Kare – 1984.
A Brief History of Computer Icons14
1985 Amiga Workbench
The Amiga Workbench was made for the Amiga 1000 personal
computer. Breaking with the desktop convention, the Amiga
Workbench adopted a workshop metaphor and has Tools
(programs), Projects (les), Draws (folders) and Gadgets (widgets).
Despite the crudely designed icons, Workbench was ahead of its
time and included features such as customizable mouse cursors,
four color graphics, multi-state icons and windows-like multiple
screens.
Atari TOS icons use Planometric perspective on the draws to keep the
pixel lines sharp when viewed at a distance.
You can see an example of the multi-state icons of the Amiga Workbench
with the Workbench icons on the left of the image.
A Brief History of Computer Icons15
1985 Windows 1.0x
After success with MS-DOS (1982) for the IBM computing system,
Microsoft announced to the public that it was developing Microsoft
Windows 1.0, a multi-tasking graphical user interface. Windows
was nally released two years later after calls from critics that
it was Vaporware (a term given to software that is announced
but never produced). The delay in the development schedule
is thought to be due to changes made, such as removing the
overlapping windows, so that the interface didn’t resemble designs
by Macintosh. Initial sales were slow for 1.0 and Windows didn’t
become popular until version 3.1 in 1992.
The icons are basic and don’t include color. It’s especially
interesting to see that the rst icons for Windows Paint use
different symbols to MacPaint, in particular the Spray Painter which
looks like a spray pump and a Lasso which is a buttery net.
Microsoft Windows 1.0 is a long way from its modern equivalent. The
icons at the bottom are from the drawing application Windows Paint.
A Brief History of Computer Icons16
1986 GEOS for Commodore 64
In 1986 GEOS for the Commodore 64 was the second most
popular GUI behind Macintosh 1.0 (based on units shipped). The
icons have more character than Windows OS and share the Mac
philosophy of clearly expressed metaphors. The GEOS Boot icon,
although unconventional for most computers, is an interesting
example of pun-based design solutions. In modern GUIs a design
such as this is advised against because the word for Boot is
different in many languages and the meaning of the icon would be
lost in translation.
1989 - 1995 NeXTSTEP / OPENSTEP
NeXTSTEP, a GUI for Unix based computers, was developed by
NeXT Computer. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Apple Computer
co-founder Steve Jobs, who subsequently hired Macintosh Icon
Designer Susan Kare as Creative Director. By the time NeXTSTEP
came onto the market, the GUI was used in both the home and
work environment and was beginning to become more like the
GUIs we know today. One signicant addition to NeXTSTEP was a
The Geos Boot icon is an example of a metaphor that may be lost in
translation.
A Brief History of Computer Icons17
program dock on the right side of the screen which facilitated easy
navigation of programs by the user. In 1997, almost ten years after
NeXTSTEP was developed, Apple Computer acquired NeXT for a
reported $400 million USD
2
, and used the OPENSTEP for Mach
(1995) operating system as the basis for Mac OS X.
2
Apple Computer, Inc. (1996-12-20). “Apple Computer, Inc. Agrees to
Acquire NeXT Software Inc.”. Press release.
Icons from OPENSTEP (1996), the last GUI by NeXT Computer before
acquisition by Apple Computer in 1997. The original NeXTSTEP icons
were monochrome.
A Brief History of Computer Icons18
1991 Macintosh System 7
Macintosh System 7 introduced color icons, but this feature was
optional for machines capable of displaying it. On older computers,
or ones that were set to monochrome, System 7 defaulted back to
the black and white design of System 6. System 7 also included
TrueType fonts for the ver y rst time, which along with typesetting
and printer output, were used to replace some of the bitmap GUI
fonts from previous Macintosh systems.
1992 Windows 3.1
Susan Kare, who had previously made icons for Apple, was
employed by Microsoft in 1988 to design icons and interface
elements for Windows 3.1. Kare used her keen eye for pixel
illustration to further rene the colors and design of the Windows
icon set. Windows 3.1 was also the rst Windows platform with
pre-installed True Type Fonts and support for 256 colors. Along
with improving the interface, Kare also created the memorable
illustrations for Windows Solitaire.
Macintosh System 7 saw the introduction of colored icons.
A Brief History of Computer Icons19
1994 Apple “Copland”
Announced in 1994, Copland was intended to be released by
Apple as System 8 in 1996. After holdups in the development
schedule and a host of feature changes the project was cancelled.
Hired during the Copland project, Chief Technology Ofcer Ellen
Hancock halted development in favor of a third-party solution.
Hancock was instrumental in the purchase of NeXT which brought
Steve Jobs back to Apple Software in 1996. Other operating
systems considered for the new Mac OS were the BeOS system,
Solaris or Microsoft’s Windows NT
3
.
Copland reached beta in 1995, and had a new theme for the
operating system, called Platinum. The Platinum interface was
the rst GUI to be in full color with 3D shading on the icons and
interface. Copland also included innovations such as spring loaded
3
Be Inc. for its BeOS system, or license either Sun Microsystems’
Solaris operating software or Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT.
Windows 3.1 icons designed by Susan Kare.
A Brief History of Computer Icons20
folders and a theme-able interface. The theme-able interface
meant that software developers could make custom skins for
Copland, which came bundled with two additional themes, Gizmo
and High-Tech. Gizmo was a bold geometric theme for children
and High-Tech which was a dark theme with a space-age feel,
presumably for young men.
Copland prompted users to log into a personal account at startup
which was given varying levels of access from the administrator
account. This feature wouldn’t be seen in Windows until Windows
98 (1998) and Mac with OS9 (1999)
4
. The distinctive style of the
Copland icons live on through a 6 part series of icon sets released
by IconFactory in 1996.
1995 Windows 95
Windows 95 was the rst version of Windows to integrate MS-
DOS and Microsoft Windows into a single product. A resounding
success, Microsoft sold a record 7 million copies of Windows 95
in the rst ve weeks of its release
5
. The popularity of Windows
95 was due to both the faster system that was internet-ready,
and a 300 million dollar advertising campaign that ran before the
ofcial release date. At the time, the advertising campaign was
thought to be the largest advertising campaign for a product
4
Apple’s Copland Project: An OS for the Common Man
5
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/history
Icons from Copland, including icons for the P Theme (High-Tech) and Z
Theme (Gizmo).