Sheryl Knowles è una disegnatrice ed artista grafica statuitense il cui più celere lavoro è stato nella seconda metà degli anni ottanta ogni giorno davanti ai nostri occhi, perlomeno se eravamo utenti dell’home computer Commodore Amiga. Si tratta infatti dell’autrice del logo boot screen di Amiga, la celebre mano sinistra che regge in mano un dischetto blu, pronto ad essere inserito dentro il computer. Sheryl ha disegnato anche altri elementi grafici, come le font ufficiali e diverse icone del Workbench.
Il fin troppo famoso logo di boot dell’home computer Commodore Amiga con la celebre mano sinistra che regge il sistema operativo Workbench. La scelta è derivata dal semplice reggere realmente in mano il disco mentre l’artista disegnava il logo.
l’identità dell’artistista autrice del disegno è stata scoperta dal forum English Amiga Board che in seguito alla semplice domanda di un utente ha effettuato ricerche storiche, trovando Sheryl Knowles nella sua timida paginetta ufficiale al seguente LINK. Tutto parte dall’easter egg in cui su Amiga compare la stringa: “Pics: Sheryl & Jack” cosa che fa intervenire sul forum la stessa autrice che ha svelato l’arcano.
La risposta di Sheryl Knowles sul forum riporta ai tempi del debutto di Amiga sul mercato, con percepibile entusiasmo per, che ho tradotto e adattato, è un vero e proprio viaggio nel passato in cui si percepisce tutta l’atmosfera pionieristica e affascinante che circonda la creazione di un prodotto completamente nuovo e innovativo.
“Hi. I’m Sheryl Knowles and I’ve just discovered this website. I can answer some of the questions posed in this thread, if anyone is still interested.
I was the first Amiga artist, hired to help design the look and feel of Amiga graphics. Jack Hager (not Hayer) was the second artist hired; he’d been a colleague of Robert J Mical’s back in Chicago. When we had enough work that we decided to divvy up the chores, Jack became Amiga’s art director, while I worked on product design. I did almost all the original icons, the original fonts, and the icons on the back of the “white” plastic case, as well as designing Graphicraft (which RJ programmed). Plus a lot of illustrations just to show off what the Amiga could do. And I did most of the testing for the Amiga art tools and printer usage.
There are two things you need to know about our early working conditions.
One: there was no art tool on the Amiga before Graphicraft. We did every single illustration in the manuals, every “show it off” illustration that appeared in magazines or trade shows, and every practical graphic (i.e. the icons and fonts), pixel by pixel, with no tools other than being able to choose a color and place the pixel. No line tools. No fills. No shape tools.
Two: We had no way to save our art work. So once designed, it had to go straight to the programmers to be coded in. I used a LOT of graph paper. Or, if it was an illustration, we had to photograph our screens and send that photo to the publisher needing it. Believe me, once Graphicraft was done, our jobs were so very much easier!
The boot disk that is the main topic of this thread was drawn by me holding it in my left hand and laying down the pixels with my mouse using my right hand. I am right handed. It was not intended to be a literal illustration of the disk or how to use it. It was simply an icon to represent the need to use a disk. The drawing was limited in size and in the number of pixels that could be used, by the programming requirements of the time. All of which should explain why it’s a bad drawing. But it was deemed a sufficient icon.”
(Sheryl Knowles)
Di
L’autrice della leggendaria mano Amiga, Sheryl Knowles
