Virginia Howlett (born 1951 in Edmonton, Canada) is a designer and painter. 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... More than one place has the name Edmonton. ... Designer is a broad term for a person who designs any of a variety of things. ... Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ...

With an MFA in Painting from The Art Institute of Chicago, Virginia was one of the first designers hired into Microsoft in 1985. While there, she built the company's first user interface design team. She led the team that designed the 3D graphic interface for Windows 95. She was also instrumental in starting Microsoft's corporate art collection. For alternate uses, see MFA (disambiguation). ... On the western edge of Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, is the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the premier art museums and schools in the United States, known especially for the extensive collection of impressionist and American art in its museum. ... The Microsoft Corporation, commonly known as just Microsoft, (NASDAQ: MSFT&selected= MSFT MSFT, HKSE: 4338&WidCoAbbName=&Month=&langcode=e 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual sales of US$44. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ...

Working in Microsoft's typography group, she collaborated with Matthew Carter to develop a number of typefaces including Verdana (which is named after her daughter, Ana). Matthew Carter (born 1937) is a designer of digital fonts. ... Verdana is a sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, with hand-hinting done by Agfa Monotype’s Tom Rickner. ...

In 1996 her book Visual Interface Design for Windows was published. In it, she explains the design process and provides a number of makeovers of real-world software products. It is recognized as one of the first books to bridge the gap between artistic product designers and technical software engineers. Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved. ... Software Engineering (SE) is the discipline of designing, creating, and maintaining software by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains and other fields. ...

After retiring from Microsoft she returned to painting. She maintains a studio in Seattle and exhibits work throughout the United States. City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ...

References

• "Interview with Virginia Howlett, mother of Verdana" Retrieved September 9, 2005.

External links

• Personal Home Page
• Microsoft Art Collection
• Visual Interface Design for Windows (ISBN 0-471-13419-8) at www.amazon.com