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.

—

Solvo Ex Libris (free bookplates)

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted By: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 6:45 am

The statistics for the percentage of adults in the USA who read books for pleasure is surprisingly (and dismally) low at only 20%. The percentage of adults in the USA who are illiterate is 15%. I don’t know whether the latter group includes those who are illiterate or not but either way, it strikes me as rather sad that so many people seem to have stopped picking up a book as soon as they got out of school. Now, I’m not one of those who rails against television or movies as I certainly watch and enjoy my fair share. But as an avid reader (generally, a book every day or two when I’m not on chemo) I’ve always thought that there’s something magical about reading a good book that I just don’t get from watching some director’s vision of the author’s words. Imagining the characters, their voices, what they look like, the locations, and being somewhat in control of the pacing makes me feel much more involved in the story (be it fiction or non-fiction) as it allows me to actually feel the tale from the point of view of the narrator. When I’m just watching a film or TV show, it is extremely rare for me to get so caught up in it that I can actually smell the heroines perfume or the salty sea breeze or feel the snow falling on the tip of my nose. But a well-written book will do it every time.

Whenever I come across an especially fine read, I like to share it with my friends so we can talk about it. Consequently, I’m often loaning out my books or buying a second or third copy to give away as gifts. In either situation, I always thought it was both useful and classy to have a bookplate attached on the inside front cover that claimed the book as my own or which dedicated it to a special friend. So for tonight’s post, I’ve got something a little different: a choice of 24 different bookplates. The downloadable files are formatted for printing at 300dpi for a finished size of 3.5″ x 3.5″. You can print them out on any kind of paper you want, but they will look best if printed on a semi-gloss or glossy premium photo paper or label stock which is readily available at most office supply stores or via this link at amazon.com. Hint: If you want to write your name on the printed label, be sure to use a permanent marker like this one to avoid smudges.

Just like all of my other artwork made available for downloading on this blog, these are yours to enjoy whether on your monitor or printed out free of cost – but for your personal use only. (If you wish to re-post them elsewhere, the artwork must be attributed to me and you must include a copy of my Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. If you wish to use them in any commercial endeavor, whether in full or in part, please contact me directly to get an appropriate license. I appreciate your respect for those terms and my efforts. Thanks! and Enjoy!

Free Icons of the Day

The following image is a reduced size preview. Simply right-click (or control-click) on it to save a zipped file to your desktop that has 24 files (each image is in .png format for 300dpi, 3.5″x3.5″ printed size).

“Escher Sketch” Redux

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

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Fri, Oct 23, 2009 12:09 am

Back around 1986 when I was playing around with my beloved Mac-Plus (that I had just upgraded to have 4 whole MB of ram!) and a 2400 baud modem (think of “Inch Worm” to get an idea of that connection speed), I came across a website that had some monochrome desktop pictures that could be downloaded for free. This was one of my very first encounters with the generosity of the early software and digital graphics pioneers. Not only were they offering the fruit of their labors for free to anyone stumbling upon their site but they would share with you their tricks and techniques, brainstorm with you on a new concept of your own, and introduce you to others with similar interests who may be of help. While I grew up in a family of extremely successful entrepreneurs going back several generations and consider myself to be a deeply ingrained capitalist at heart, my parents also taught me by example, how important it is to share your knowledge and skills as well as the fruits of your labors with those first starting out and hungry to learn and with those who simply have no where else to turn. So while the sentiment of the early freeware-shareware movement wasn’t foreign to me personally, it was a bit of an anomaly among the rest of the Me Generation when, according to the media, “everyone” was out for themselves and “Greed is Good” was their motto. I think this is one of the major reasons that I am proud to be a Geek. If it were not for this generous community, I would never have had the opportunity to learn as much as I have over the years nor have been encouraged to try my hand at skills that others outside of that online community told me were beyond my ability and that it was ridiculous to even try.

So, back to that first website I mentioned. It was one of those hosted by CompuServe(one of the earliest portals for us mere mortals with personal computers and not mainframes) and there was a desktop picture I came across that I thought was the most creative, clever concepts ever that was an Art Parody which merged the work of M.C. Escher and the popular toy by Ohio Art, the Etch-A-Sketch. While it was executed quite expertly, because of the state of the technology I owned at that time (limited to 2-bit graphics) it was incredibly crude compared to what can be done these days with 32 or even 64-bit graphics and millions of colors. Unfortunately, I cannot recall who had originated the concept of the “Escher-Sketch” to give him or her their proper due (if any of you knows, please put it in a comment to this post!). In honor of that anonymous wizard, I’ve created an updated version which makes a perfect backdrop for my Chiquita Series of icons. So without further ado, here’s tonight’s late night snack,..

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.

—