037. Susan Kare and Amy & Jennifer Hood: Pixel Pushing and Powerful Branding

This dual feature episode explores the legacy of Susan Kare, the designer behind the original Mac icons, with guests Amy and Jennifer Hood, the twin creatives behind Hoodzpah, known for their bold branding and empowering creative business strategies.

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Sources / Links:

• Susan Kare's Prints: kareprints.com
• Smithsonian Article
• Amy and Jen's Book: Freelance and Business and Stuff by Amy Hood and Jennifer Hood

About Susan

Susan Kare is a graphic designer and pioneering iconographer best known for her work on the original Apple Macintosh in the early 1980s. With a background in fine arts, she had no prior experience in computer graphics when she was hired to design the first digital icons and typefaces for the Mac. Using graph paper and pixel constraints, she created some of the most enduring symbols in tech history, including the Happy Mac, the Command key symbol, and the original Mac fonts like Chicago and Geneva. Her designs humanized technology, making computers intuitive and accessible to non-technical users. After Apple, she continued shaping digital interfaces at NeXT, Microsoft, Facebook, and Pinterest, and today, she serves as a Design Architect at Niantic Labs while selling limited-edition prints of her iconic designs.

About Amy & Jen Hood

Amy and Jen Hood are the twin sister duo behind Hoodzpah, a Southern California-based branding agency known for its bold, strategic, and personality-driven design work. Since founding Hoodzpah in 2011, they have worked with major brands like Disney, Nike, and 20th Century Fox, creating memorable identities and custom typefaces. Beyond client work, they are passionate about helping creatives build successful careers—they wrote Freelance, and Business, and Stuff, a practical and empowering guide to running a creative business, and have launched resources for designers, including brand identity courses and custom fonts. With a fearless approach to branding and a deep understanding of creative entrepreneurship, Amy and Jen have carved out a distinctive place in the design world while uplifting the next generation of creatives.

Amy and Jen's Book: Freelance and Business and Stuff by Amy Hood and Jennifer Hood

Follow Amy & Jen:

• Amy's Instagram: @amyhoodlum
• Jen's Instagram: @thegoodhood
• Studio Instagram: @hoodzpahdesign
• Website: hoodzpahdesign.com

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View all the visually rich 1-min reels of each woman on IG below:

Instagram: Amber Asay
Instagram: Women Designers Pod