Macintosh pirate flag reincarnated as art, for sale by original designer Susan Kare
Former Apple designer Susan Kare, who created famously distinct icons for the original Macintosh operating system, is selling through her online shop reproductions of the pirate flag that flew over the Mac team's building in 1983.
Pirate flag as seen in 1984 Fortune Magazine photo (left) with Kare's reproduction. | Source: Folklore.org
More of an homage than a direct copy, the hand-painted reproductions harken back to Kare's original design that flew over Bandley 3, a building which housed the original Macintosh Divison on Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus.
According to Andy Hertzfeld, one of Apple's first developers, the flag was inspired by a slogan coined by late cofounder Steve Jobs to inspire the Macintosh team. Jobs introduced three "Sayings from Chairman Jobs" during an off-site retreat in 1983:
"Real artists ship. It's better to be a pirate than join the navy. Mac in a book by 1986."
Drawing from Jobs' sayings, and to stand apart from other nondescript buildings on Apple's growing campus, Macintosh programmer Steve Capps suggested flying a flag.
Pirate flag as seen in 1984 Fortune Magazine photo (left) with Kare's reproduction. | Source: Folklore.org
More of an homage than a direct copy, the hand-painted reproductions harken back to Kare's original design that flew over Bandley 3, a building which housed the original Macintosh Divison on Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus.
According to Andy Hertzfeld, one of Apple's first developers, the flag was inspired by a slogan coined by late cofounder Steve Jobs to inspire the Macintosh team. Jobs introduced three "Sayings from Chairman Jobs" during an off-site retreat in 1983:
"Real artists ship. It's better to be a pirate than join the navy. Mac in a book by 1986."
Drawing from Jobs' sayings, and to stand apart from other nondescript buildings on Apple's growing campus, Macintosh programmer Steve Capps suggested flying a flag.
Kare's flags are hand-painted and come in 3-by-5 foot or 4-by-6 foot sizes priced at $1,900 and $2,500, respectively. The pieces are considered art and not intended for outdoor use.A few days before we moved into the new building, Capps bought some black cloth and sewed it into a flag. He asked Susan Kare to paint a big skull and crossbones in white at the center. The final touch was the requisite eye-patch, rendered by a large, rainbow-colored Apple logo decal.
Comments
But $2500 is Retina iMac money.
You're allowed to spend $5,000, if you so wish.
Apple aren't exactly pirates nowadays are they? You go in to an Apple Store and it's about as sterile and corporate as you can get.
Check out Kare's Twitter account. I get the feeling she's not too crazy about Apple creating a new font and calling it San Francisco.
Stealing her font name was about as classy as stealing the Swift name from the academics who created the real Swift language: http://swift-lang.org/main/
Apple need to stop doing this.
It's cool, for sure.
But $2500 is Retina iMac money.
You're allowed to spend $5,000, if you so wish.
Okay, you get the flags, I'll get 43 shares of Apple instead
What would make an Apple Store not sterile or corporate?
I don't think Apple stores are what is generally considered sterile and corporate. They all look much the same but they are stylish and minimalist and in terms of retail design they are still a cut above the rest. There's nothing cheap about them.
I think he wants them to sell weed. Maybe someday...
What do you want, draperies and throw pillows???
Yet they're always full of people... and they sell a ton of stuff.
Weird, right?
He wants to troll.
By putting up this flag. All over the place.
It's cool, for sure.
But $2500 is Retina iMac money.
Yep; nice but it's a bit too much for a painted piece of rag.
Stealing her font name was about as classy as stealing the Swift name from the academics who created the real Swift language: http://swift-lang.org/main/
Apple need to stop doing this.
How do you know they stole it? Maybe they asked permission to use the name or offered them some money. I don't hear them complaining. It got them some publicity at least anyway.
I missed that.
I love Futurama. I see there is a new series in iTunes here in England. However, it doesn't look nearly as funny, going by the trailers, sadly. The first four series I could watch forever.
Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Apple aren't exactly pirates nowadays are they? You go in to an Apple Store and it's about as sterile and corporate as you can get.
Yes, I'd prefer a dark, dusty and disorganized shop with non-working and discontinued products being demoed by fat smelly hacker-types who immediately gravitate toward showing you how you can hack yourself in the terminal and laugh at inappropriate times, mostly through their nose. Yes, this is what I'm missing...