Legendary Apple artist Susan Kare has released 32 new retro-style icons designed to draw you away from your computer screen. Designed in collaboration with Asprey Studio, Kare's "EscKeys" collection consists of mechanical keyboard keycaps and wearable pendants, each featuring 8-bit pixel art illustrations of dogs, plants, mail, and coffee.
Although the icon designs are new, anyone familiar with Kare's work will recognize the style. She was responsible for designing most of the icons for the first-generation Macintosh personal computer operating system, including the "HappyMac" startup icon and the original floppy disk file save symbol.
Alastair Walker, founder of Kare and Asprey Studio, said each new design "contains deep meaning" and represents the fun that people can enjoy beyond the keyboard. Each product in the EscKeys series is made of silver or gold-plated silver, and is limited edition, ranging from 30 to 120 pieces depending on the icon, so the purchase price is not cheap.
Prices start at $650 for silver computer keys and go up to $2,064 for necklace pendants with gold plating (a method of plating a layer of gold on sterling silver). Solid gold models are apparently "available upon request," and each piece comes with its own blockchain digital artwork to verify "ownership and provenance."
Kare pays similar homage to Apple's computing history in other pieces of her art collection. Her website features prints of her original Macintosh designs, and in 2014 she sold a hand-painted Jolly Roger pirate flag inspired by the one she painted in 1983 that hung above Apple's campus offices for up to $2,500.