South Beach Goodies

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 7:54 am

The South Beach community in Miami Beach, Florida is in many ways a fantasy world of it’s own. It is much well-known for it’s richness in historical Art Deco architecture as it is renown for it’s fabulous restaurants, high-energy night life, as it is celebrated for it’s luxurious ocean-front hotels and beaches populated with the wealthy, the famous, and the beautiful. The area first developed as a winter-resort destination spot when millionaires such as Harvey Firestone,J.C. Penney, Harvey Stutz, Albert Champion, Frank Seiberling, and Rockwell LaGorce built their mansions between 1920-1929 on the three-mile stretch of Collins Avenue know as “Millionaire’s Row”. Fascination with Art Deco struck the area with a vengeance in the 1930’s and the area continued to flourish and it’s population explode through the 1940’s and ’50’s. But after Fidel Castro came to power over Cuba (less than 200 miles from Miami) in 1959 and permitted the Soviet Union to position missiles aimed at the United States in 1962, a decided chill set over South Florida and the former hotspots fell out of favor and began to rapidly decay out of neglect and social upheaval.

At the end of the 1970’s, South Beach was declared a Historic Landmark, a designation intended to protect the Art Deco character of the neighborhood by setting strict architectural guidelines for any renovations or new construction. The influx of of over 140,000 refugees from Cuba as a result of the Mariel boatlift enriched the community through these new residents who brought with them a multitude of artistic talents, dedicated work ethics, loving families, and strong determination to achieve the American Dream.

Over the last 30 years, Movies and Television shows filmed in and about the area such as “Scarface”, “Miami Vice”, “CSI Miami” and, of course, the evening news following live the bizarre murder and hunt for the killer of fashion designer Gianni Versace in front of his South Beach mansion, exposed both the glamorous as well as the seedy side of of South Beach life and added to the new interest and myths.

It is the spirit of the area, the people, the landscape, sunshine and fun that served as inspiration for my “South Beach Icons” series. 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 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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Series to be continued…

So Many Choices!

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Wed, Aug 12, 2009 9:12pm

When it comes to the important decisions in life, I’ve never had a problem in choosing which way to go and while the results are not always what I had hoped for, I’ve never doubted nor felt regret. It seems easy to do because I know who I am, what I want to be remembered for, and what I need to do to achieve that. But when it comes to making a selection off a restaurant menu or choosing between the blue folder icon or the red, I can take forever to make up my mind! Go figure. Anyways, this is my way to explain why I’ve posted multiple versions of icons designed for essentially the same purpose. If you’re as fickle as I on such trifles, you can mix & match your toolbar, device, folder and applications every few days while still sticking with the same general theme. Or not. And if Art Deco just isn’t your thing, stay tuned as I’ve much more up my sleeve.

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 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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Art Deco: Icons – or – Clip Art?

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 3 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Sun, Aug 9, 2009 8:55pm

An interesting comment was posted on the forums at MacTHEMES in response to a few previews I had posted of my Art Deco Series when I began noodling with it in 2007. While indicating that he liked my concept, the Poster felt that the execution was more conducive to Clip Art than Icons. I appreciated his comments and must say that when viewing my art at say 48×48 or smaller sizes, that I can certainly see his point. Guess I’m rather spoiled in working on a Mac PowerBook 17 with a resolution of 1920×1200, thus having the real estate to keep my icons at their full OSX 10.4+ size of 128×128 pixels so I can enjoy them and without them being intrusive. I suppose that’s the benefit of being “retired” and no longer having to create work that is acceptable to the general mass market to feed my family. 😉 At the same time, just because I’ve referred to my creations as “icons” doesn’t prevent you creative folks out there from using them as you might if they were advertised as “Clip Art”.

What’s your view? I’m curious to know:

How many of you look upon icons purely as a functional interface element vs. as functional AND “eye-candy”?
What size do you keep icons at on your desktop?
Do you ever set a custom icon on a folder to serve no purpose other than to just enjoy looking at it?
Do your preferences change if working on a Mac vs. Windows?

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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