TopHat – Alpha-Numeric Icons

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 4 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Fri, Oct 2, 2009 9:01 pm

I’m old enough to remember the days before personal computers, when graphic artists turned to a family of products collectively known as “press-type” or “dry transfer type” as an alternative to hand-drawn lettering for advertising layouts and other printed materials. For $4.00-$7.00 you’d get an 8.5″x11″ sheet of waxed paper with as many letters, numerals, punctuation marks, and/or ding-bats that could fit on the page, depending on the type-size,type-face, and type-style. (note the difference in jargon as back then there were no “fonts”) To get them off the wax paper onto the mock-up, you’d place the sheet wrong-side up positioned exactly where you wanted it and use a metal or plastic burnishing tool and very firmly but gently rub each individual character off the wax and onto your paper. It was a real pain if you made a mistake either in placement or in execution as you’d have to gently scratch off the character with a razor blade without harming the paper below it. Believe it or not, when press-type was first invented, it was considered a real time saver! It also allowed the grunt-job of doing the “keylining” or “paste-up” to be done by lower-level employees so the graphic artists and art directors were freed up for more creative or skilled tasks.

With the advent of personal computers and particularly the Mac (which inspired the development of the first graphics application), press-type pretty-much went the way of the dinosaurs. There’s a plethora of fonts available now and they can be manipulated further in a wide variety of apps including word-processors, page-layout and graphics based. But the concept of having the digital equivalent of press-type available on your computer for quick and easy spot jobs where you only need a letter or two or a handful of words, is still compelling. Hence, I’ve created several icon series in a variety of styles which consist of each letter of the alphabet, cardinal numerals, punctuation marks, and a handful of coordinated decorative that could be used as ding-bats. Tonight’s offering is titled: TopHat. Enjoy!

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save all of the full-size images image(s) in a single zipped file to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered in the “Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day” section are free for your personal use, subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for Terms of Use) For commercial or any other use, please contact me for directly.

“CSI – Mac” ?

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 2 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Tue. Sept 29, 2009 10:18 pm

There are a number of old sayings that declare this trait or that is a sure-bet reflection of a person’s character. Variations on this theme include: “You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep”, “The clothes make the man”, and “You can judge a person by their book covers”. Most of these adages are centuries, if not thousands of years old and most of us have heard them repeated since our earliest childhood. Whether or not such sentiments are a matter of training, self-fulfilling prophecy, or merely observation, I’ve no idea but while these clever little generalities are hardly fail-safe proof, there appears to be a universal tendency for people to unconsciously make snap judgments of others based on such accessible clues. Well, I’ve got new candidate to nominate as a suitable, superficial reflection of human personality in this first decade of the 21st Century: Computer Desktops!

Think about it. Or better yet, look around your office or dorm, classroom, or peep at the screen on the laptop of that guy sitting against the window next time you’re at Starbuck’s and tell me what you see. I believe you can learn a lot about a person’s temperament, dreams, priorities, habits, weaknesses, strengths, loves, and moods by (surreptitiously) checking in on the state of their desktop every once in a while. While I don’t advocate making snap judgments like this if you’re on a jury, are a cop, or parent of a teenager, or in any other situation that calls for more than speculation, still, developing the skill as a “Forensic Desktop Reader” could be the next big thing to show up as a TV series or be a great new career move. Whad’ya think?

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are reduced size previews of 6 new “Metro” series Art Deco desktop pictures. You can download all 6, at 3 different monitor resolutions, in one convenient zipped archive by clicking the “Download Now” button below. As always, usage of any of the images offered in the “Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day” section are free for your personal use, subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for Terms of Use) For commercial or any other use, please contact me for directly.

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Legal Adversaries, Old Flames & Divine Irony

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:25 am

Many moons ago, my hubby penned a song that was inspired by a rather unpleasant conversation he had with a former girlfriend whose (then) husband had invited us to a party at their apartment. That song, entitled “Don’t Paint Me”, has always been one of my favorites of his original compositions for a number of reasons, not the least of which is due to the memory of his band (“Halo”) performing it one night at a local bar. At the table next to me was a group of rowdy people getting off on the music and beer and I could not help but notice that in the center of that group was the infamous ex-girlfriend who was excitedly bragging to those around her how she used to date that sexy lead guitarist in the white suit. The fun part was that she was completely oblivious to the fact that the lyrics being sung at that very moment were a biting commentary about her less than honorable character.

“Don’t Paint Me”

You trace the face of friends so dear

You draw them in the dust

Painting words you choose with careless colors.

You draw my blood for red highlights

Green jealousy flashes your eyes

Don’t admit the sky is blue, it might strain you.

Argue with your arguments

Don’t argue with your friends.

The wisdom you claim is claimed by you alone dear.

Argue with your arguments

Don’t argue with your friends

The freedom you take may already be taken.

Ear can hear yes language speaks

To memories that you choose

You believe the past, refuse what’s coming.

Pain has faded and run from my heart

You will oh please take your fine fat tongue

And wind it up, never more to bark.

Show me your friends and I’ll show you you are who you reconstruct me to be

Change me only in your mind, don’t affect me.

Changes you see are lies to your eyes

If wishes are all that they can be

Your mind it paints my actions to look like your dreams

What brought this song to mind tonight were the documents I was reviewing for a planned discussion with my attorney tomorrow. I’ve been trapped in a nightmare of a lawsuit going on close to a dozen years now but until tonight I had never thought of how apt Don’s lyrics were for my self-proclaimed adversary. Details of the case itself deserve a blog or a book of its own but I’ll leave that for another lifetime. Until then, my friends, I hope you’ll be satisfied with another round of legal-oriented icons, the creation of which is part of my stress-reduction therapy.

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered in the “Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day” section are free for your personal use, subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for Terms of Use) For commercial or any other use, please contact me for directly.