This post will give you the Willies!

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 7 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Sat. Mar. 13, 2010 5:06 am

This week was pretty heavy for me. Some research I’ve been doing for a friend has really put me to the test and I came face-to-face with the realization that I am probably never going to get rid of this “chemo brain” completely. While my friend has been gracious and seems quite pleased with the results of my efforts so far, he didn’t know me before I got sick and so has no way of knowing that the “old” me would’ve accomplished 5x as much and the depth and quality of my research and writing would have been far superior. I’ve heard some people say that being a perfectionist is a bad thing – but I’ve never understood that point of view, as long as I don’t expect others to be perfect (which I don’t). Of course, I’ve never been perfect but if I hadn’t expected it of myself, I would never have been able to learn and accomplish what I have in the past. I’m not neurotic about it. It’s that the efforts involved in trying to be perfect was just a challenge I really enjoyed and I really miss having the physical stamina and the mental ability to focus at the same level I used to.

sigh…

In any event, because of the strain of this week, I really needed to do something light and fun and playful. Since my brain was too shot to dredge up an original idea, I went searching for some kids coloring pages and found a delightful abundance of sites with just what I was looking for. The absolute best site I found (based on variety, originality, and just in general fun) was one coming out of France. You should check it out as it’s just a delight. http://www.coloriage-enfants.com/ – As to the character I selected, the website indicated his name is “Winni Windel”. I was unfamiliar with the character and so did a search and came up with literally hundreds of websites and blogs for Winni Windel coloring pages or animations but only one single website that is a likely candidate for originating this adorable “diaper baby”. The site is for Steffen Soulejman Janus, who is “an internationally interactive specialist. He was Co-Founder of foco design studios in Germany and Switzerland and acted as CEO, Senior Project Manager and Creative Director for the company. For the past ten years, he set new standards in nonlinear interface design, online communications, branding and sales….” And he’s got a hell of an impressive list of clients! As to Winni, under his projects page is posted an online design study for diaper character Winnie promotion” completed in 2001 that he created for Optipresent Media AG, Munich Germany. The finished project can be found at Windel Winni Reloaded. It’s in German so you may need to use a translation plug-in or just enjoy the pictures. According to this site (unlike the hundreds of others – but obviously more authoritative) the character is named “Windel Winni” and not the other way around.

Free 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). Create Commons license applies (see sidebar for details)

Happy Notes!

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 2 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Sat. Feb. 6, 2010 5:00 pm

Been working on updating some of my older icons to work better with those systems that can use 512px images in QuickView. Trying to update some of the styles, as well. Does anyone out there still like the old glossy, plastic-y 3D style or have y’all moved on?

I’m a bit short on time today so I’ll catch up tomorrow and write something a bit more substantive. Meantime, Enjoy!

Free 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 on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

A Comeuppance (& Twitter Birds)

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 2 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Monday, November 10, 2009 12:29 am

For those of you unfamiliar with MacThemes, it’s a wonderful resource not only for finding the cream of the crop of freeware and shareware icon, wallpaper, and skins, but also a great place to go for advice on how to create such interface elements and how to improve your designs. I’ve been a silent visitor to that site for several years and just last Friday, decided to go ahead and post an announcement there of the release of my Art Deco Series of icons and included a handful of examples. To put it mildly, my offering didn’t quite get the reaction I had either expected or hoped for and it really threw me for a loop at first. But after reflecting on all the comments (over 40 to a single posting, which is more than I’ve gotten to all the posts on this blog combined!) – I realized that I needn’t be so glum. For one thing, the controversy drew a number of visitors to my blog who had not been aware of it before. (Echos of the old smart-ass saying “There’s no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name right”) But more importantly, a few of the latter comments actually offered some very specific, constructive criticism. As to the hints about technical execution, I am reminded that not all users have the same set-up as I (I’m working on a MacBookPro, OSX 4.11, 1920×1200 resolution with millions of colors on a matte-finished LCD screen and have all my Finder views set to 128×128 icons) – and so need to make sure that my icons look good at ALL sizes and all possible resolutions. Before I was forced to retire, I wouldn’t have thought twice about investing whatever was necessary to keep current with the tools of my trade but without any means for a return on that investment, I’d been reluctant to upgrade to the Leopard system which actually uses the 512×512 size as well as 32-bit graphics because I wasn’t sure I could justify the cost of having to likewise upgrade most of my software. This is something I need to reassess.

As to the comments that said my icons looked “dated”: The difficult part is trying to figure out how to meet the marketplace trends without having to give up my own personality in the process. I had always thought that the idea of third-parties creating icons for use as alternatives to the originals embedded in their operating system and applications was to give a choice for those who wanted something more distinctive. Yet if the perceived quality of those 3rd party icons is substantially based upon their compliance with this month’s committee-determined color palette and Apple’s or Microsoft’s chosen viewing perspective and lighting effects, then don’t we just end up with cookie-cutter icons that have barely perceptible differences from the original? And how does one fit within the confines of the latest trends even when trying to depict a specific historic period and style?

I’ve got a lot to mull over, research, experiment with, and hopefully will improve. I made a first stab at it over the weekend as you can see from the following side-by-side comparison. (Don’t bother trying to download this preview as there is no release at this time on the revised version as it’s just at the beginning stages – but if you’ve got any thoughts on these, preferences, constructive criticism, etc. I would love to hear from you in a reply to this post.)

As for tonight’s offering of downloadable icons/clip-art, I’ve created the following half dozen specimens that can be used on your desktop for Twitter – or wherever else that might strike your fancy. Enjoy!

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.

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