New Look Is Here! + Elegance Pt. 2

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:45pm

Finally completed the change-over to a different WordPress Theme which I have heavily customized. The longest part of the task was in going back through all the posts and removing the post-specific CSS mark-up. While a few kinks still need to be worked out, I hope that this cleaner, softer look will be a hit with my fans.

GEEK ALERT! (If your eyes glaze over at the thought of coding, skip to the next paragraph!): For those of you who have dabbled in hand-coding before, it’s a heck of a lot easier to do updates if you have started out with a well-crafted modular system as the global backbone for your blog (or website). Of course, to create such a system, you really need to have a clear idea of the range of media, size, and other visual criteria you plan to be working with on a regular basis so you can keep the blog-specific CSS to a minimum – or better yet, not even necessary at all. When I started this blog back in July 2008, I really had no clear concept in mind – or rather I should say, no clear PRACTICAL concept in mind. That’s because I truly had no idea what the significance was to the limitations placed on bloggers hosted by WordPress.com (where one is restricted solely to working with CSS and even then restricted further based upon whichever template they have selected. It is the latter which posed the most surprises because there is no way to know what those restrictions are until you try to make changes to the default CSS of a template. The bottom line is that I realized the template I had originally selected was not as flexible as I had thought and created a greater need for a lot of hacking and workarounds. While the core css of this new template is not as clean as I’d like, I think that I will be able to get a better handle on it over the next couple of weeks to force it into a more modular structure making it easier to keep up and more visually pleasing.

Along with the launch of IconDoIt’s new look, I thought it’d be particularly apropos to serve up Part 2 of my Elegance icon/clip art series. 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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Victorian Clip-Art & Icons

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 2 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 2:47am

This past week has been a heavy one as my 91 year-old Mother-in-law moved from our home into a residential nursing facility. My thoughts and feelings about it are still in too much of a jumble to put words to them yet and I am extremely weary and weak tonight. I did not want to let too many days go by without posting though and so here I am.

For today’s goodies, I’ve pulled out of my stockpile a selection from a series of Victorian themed original clip art and icons I have been working on and off over the past couple of years. They are probably best suited for scrapbooking and cards rather than icons but I leave that decision up to you. 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 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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