University of Oregon Professor Craig Hickman's tinkering to create a computer drawing program his 3-year-old son could use has landed him a prominent niche in the 30th anniversary celebration of the Macintosh computer.
Hickman, a professor of digital arts in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, created the Kid Pix program in 1988. He began distributing a free, black-and-white version in 1989, then a $25 color version in 1990. Later that year, the program was published by Broderbund Software, and Kid Pix went on to become a multi-generational favorite.
For that, Apple featured Hickman on its "1990" page for the Macintosh 30-year celebration. Each year from the Macintosh inception in 1984 through 2014's "creating the future" has its own web page for the celebration.
Hickman explains on his photography website that he was a student at The Evergreen State College in Washington when he got his first taste of computer programming in 1972. He later resumed his programming hobby on an Atari 400 computer. But when the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, he was an early convert and the rest is Kid Pix history.
"It was totally graphical so the visual possibilities were much greater," Hickman says on his website. "Most of all, the Mac seemed to have people with a consistent and enlightened vision behind it."
- from the UO Office of Strategic Communications