Kai Kruase:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Krause

Krause significantly broadened conventional notions of the graphical user interface by applying innovative design principles and providing realtime interaction for the user, neither of which were widely deployed in the 1980s because most users found them too oblique to learn and remember. User interface elements like soft shadows, rounded corners, and translucency, which are today common in Mac OS X, Windows XP and Linux, appeared already in products of his companies.

The company which he co-founded, MetaCreations Corp., began as HSC Software, which released the first version of Kai's breakthrough product, Kai's Power Tools (a.k.a "KPT"), in 1992. HSC went on to release a second version of KPT, and the first version of KPT Bryce, and several other titles before changing their name to Metatools in 1995. This name remained until 1997, when a rapid series of mergers with Fractal Design, RayDream, Specular, and RTG (Real-Time Geometry) necessitated a new identity for the growing organization: MetaCreations.

For the rest of the 1990s, MetaCreations continued to develop a wide variety of successful graphical software titles. Application and interfaces for which Krause was most directly responsible include Kai's Power Tools, Live Picture, KPT Bryce, Kai's Power Show, Kai's Power Goo, KPT Convolver, and Kai's Photo Soap and Poser.