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Our
guest is living in Sweden with
her beloved cat Russin. She is
a biologist, an animal lover,
a web site designer, and a
helping hand to all iconists.
Her favorite toy is her
Macintosh!
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I'm
happy to introduce to you Sara, the
webmistress of the legendary
Icon
Parade and
one of the founders of Icon
Amazons. Her
diligent work helps many of us find more
and more icons from all over the world.
Her site is a cozy home of more than 600
links, including Macintosh and Windows
icon sites. With the help of
Sandy(SMD's
Web), she
created ISC(Icon
Search Center), a FileMaker
Pro database
which holds all the links found at Icon
Parade and all the icon information that
you need when searching for a particular
icon. Sara is an inspiration to all of us
and Icon Parade is so much more than just
links. Within its pages is a wealth of
information.
Thanks,
Sara, for being with us and giving us the
opportunity to promote one of the oldest
icon sites; a site which inspired many of
us to start making icons.
Ilona:
Please
tell our readers when and why you started
collecting icons?
Sara:
Wao, thanks for that introduction -
you make me blush and think "Is that me
you're talking about?"
OK, over to the
questions: Uhm... it must have been in
1995 when I found InfoMac CD's on the
school network called MacPublic. Back then
it was mostly folders and folders and
folders.
And why? Well, I've
always been a sucker for tiny
illustrations, you know like the ones you
see in family magazines around food
recipes, on special holiday pages etc. And
old goody collections like the Icons4Us
made me smile and get excited back in
those days. =o) Seems like I've smiled a
lot these past 4.5 years =oD
Ilona:
What
gave you the idea of gathering so many
links under Icon Parade's roof? It must be
a lot of work, collecting all those URLs.
Is there anyone helping you find all those
icon sites?
Sara: I'm
just pure nuts! As a collector you have a
few connections wrong somewhere in the
system, and it can take some weird
expressions.... =oD And why I have them
all? Well, mainly it's because I want to
give everybody the same chance to show
their work off, I also don't want anyone
to feel left out because I'm not fond of
that particular icon style or so. And even
if I would choose just my favorites it
would still be a _huge_ list!! So then I
can just as well keep them all, can't I?
No one else is doing it, so...
And I have tremendous
help from my visitors with link tips!
Sometimes I get a whole bunch from
someone, and other times I just get one
link sent over. Either is just as
appreciated!!! But I would still say I do
90% of the checking, maintaining and
hunting myself.
I have to thank
Eric
Peacock too for
opening my eyes for Japanese sites, and
giving me useful hints on how to browse
them. And Sandy for ISC, that is the best
thing ever invented! I love it! And it's
been a real blast to help her develop
it.
Ilona:
ISC
was a great idea. How long did it take to
finish? Are you happy with the number of
people who took the time to
register?
Sara: Did I say
it loud enough - Sandy did the major part
of this database!! I have helped her add
links and keep it up to date, and also
give suggestions on what should be in it
and not. You should see our personal
copies of the database! There are like 50
fields for everything you can think of! We
had to keep it low in the public release
though. I mean no one is interested in the
HTML code for the address fields in my
Stardust section etc... =o)
OK, Sandy sent it over
and I had it in a corner of my hard drive
to wait for better days (i.e better
computer) for some months. Then it was
rather fast (a month or so), cause my new
speedy computer allowed me to do so many
things! And most of the database was
already done. We added some fields and
layouts, but that was all. And you'll have
to ask Sandy how long the first version
took to make...
We have just reached
100 registered users, and I would say that
is a good amount, but I wouldn't know,
I've never dealt with shareware or so. I
would like to hear comments from more
people though. We have a few regulars that
take their time writing, but there could
always be more! We removed the PC version
when my VPC crashed and I was so fed up
with the Windows way of treating all the
graphical decoration in it, and we haven't
heard anyone comment on it at all. Blah or
fine? Who knows...
For the future we're
still hoping for an on-line version (help
anyone? wink-wink!!!), but what I read
about the new FileMaker is depressing.
They've added MS buttons to go with the
Office look! And you have to buy the
expensive version to be able to have more
than 10 visitors per day on the database!
And here I was hoping that I wouldn't need
to keep the links in two places, but just
go with the database, but since the Parade
have 300 visitors per day, I could forget
that... =o(
Ilona:
You
started your web work with
Steve(Icon
Arcade).
Tell us something about how a Mac user and
Windows user can work together on the same
subject. What is good and bad about this
kind of relationship?
Sara: As far as
I could see there were no problems what so
ever with our cooperation because we were
on different platforms! On the contrary
Steve had the answers to the PC questions
and I the Mac. I also learned a lot from
Steve myself, so now it takes 10 minutes
tops to have my school PC looking
"normal", and 6 of those are to download
great system replacements! =o).
Why did we stop the
cooperation then? Well, most of all
Steve's real-life workload picked up too
much. Then we found ourselves struggling
towards different goals, and in the end we
just had an index page in common and two
very different sites behind that. So we
thought we'd skip the extra work updating
the extra index... Steve still has one of
the best Windows archives, but the site is
not frequently updated, and he more or
less tells his visitors not to write him.
That's an attitude I'm glad I'm not
associated with.
Ilona:
Do
you have a favorite icon artist? What
attracts you to a particular artist or set
of icons?
Sara: Woou, this
was the toughest question so far! And my
answer might sound diplomatic - but I
swear, it is the truth!!! I love them
all!!! All styles and types! But OK, I'll
give you my top 3 (in no particular
order): Tomoyuki Miyano (aka
IronDevil),
Hideki
Itoh and
Dave
Brasgalla. It's
because I'm particularly fond of small
detailed 3D. There have been many times
when I have a huge smile when I see
IronDevil's latest set, and Hide adds lots
of quality to the world of icons, and
Dave... Well, I've been desperately in
love with his style since day one, what
can I say!
My two major turn-ons
are colours and lights-shadows. It makes
all the difference! To the lights-shadows
section I could add Hiroaki Endo at
IconBox
too, cause he has a glow in his icons that
always makes me amazed! And artists that
makes you think "now, where did he/she
find that colour in the colour palette - I
don't have that!!" climbs a few steps up
my ladder too! Dave has his very own
palette, and Hantaro
is another iconist with his special
designed palette! Now I'm talking 8bit
icons of course!!
Ilona:
When
you make your own icons, which icon editor
do you prefer to use?
Sara: Who told
you I make icons =o)? OK... I started with
ResEdit, like so many others, but then I
got stuck on NeoIcon
for many years. I love the many options
you have to choose from etc. And the "Get
icon from screen..." I would have died
without, I'm sure of!
But now with the 32bit
icons I had to abandon my dear Neo and
started to look at Iconographer,
since it was the first real editor (I
don't count IconBuilder,
since it's only a Photoshop plugin). But I
wasn't comfortable with the interface of
it, I wanted back to the old tinies to the
right, so when IconMachine
released its 32bit version it was a hit!
I love the masking features in it
too, now that I have learned to use it
properly and all the tools works in that
mode too! And the CMM for it is great
too!
Ilona:
What
is your opinion about the new 32 bit
icons?
Sara: I like
them and I don't... If you use them like
Lars Wiegman at HomeArt,
or like the Yosemite set at
IconFactory
they are the best. Let alone John Marstall
at Perfect
Yosemite -
can't believe I almost forgot him!!!
Another fave set away from the
system/folders sphere is the tiny
construction set over at Iconia,
by Jeremy Foy and Justin Cook. They are
also good to use when you convert PC
icons, since you get a perfect colour
match then. They don't have the same 8bit
palette as we do. But if you're just using
it to make photo-thumbnails, I can so live
without them!
Ilona:
You
are my fellow judge at
Iconmaniac's
monthly Top Ten. Then, there is
Iconfactory's
yearly contest, Pixelpalooza.
MacUtopia
started another kind of contest this year.
Do you think it's a good idea to judge the
work of icon artists?
Sara: Of course
not! You can never judge art! And I don't
judge what I like and not like when I'm
putting my scores. I strictly keep to the
rule book and judge techniques and
everything around that. Since I have more
than 100.000 icons in my collection I have
seen a few... So I know the "special"
category well. And even if my own icons
are not quite the top of the icon work, I
do know how icons should look. I only
admire those who managed to get them to
look like that too!
A good thing with
contests like PixPaloo is that we are
introduced to many new iconists, and if we
grab them quick, they stay among us. Many
of the top artists have stayed and given
us many terrific icons! But for the
competition thing I don't give water! And
bad losers are a drag! Just look at the
"war" this spring when Brian (aka
Ikthusian, Etherbrian
etc, etc,) won with his fun set Eyecons!
Ridiculous! And the loudest voices of
course made the worse icons... It's sad
when they can't see the great artist
behind a playful set!
Ilona:
Which
sites do you surf regularly? How do you
like the sites designed today? - I'm
asking you as a certified
webmaster.
Sara: Well, I
have 600+ sites in my links list that I
have to visit regularly, or I will get
yelled at for not paying attention =o).
But OK, I know what you mean. Some sites I
visit more often, simply because they
update more often. I try to visit a
Japanese
software news
site every
second day at least, cause I find so many
new icons and links through this. Then I
go to MacCommunity,
IconFactory
and I have started to visit
ResExcellence
and IconCow
too. These are all sites that present news
in the icon world, and needed to keep me
and ISC updated. Then of course I visit
all the icon sites that are
updated!!
And about the designs:
Looks like we're getting back more and
more to basics if people don't take the
advanced path with Shockwave and Flash
stuff. I'm not fond of frames at all,
cause the framed sites are almost always
designed for large monitors, and I still
have a 480x640... And I don't see the use
of Flash and Shockwave to be quite honest.
If I want moving pictures I watch TV. OK,
I sounded very old fashioned there!! =o)
But OK, I can see the use if it's made
with finesse. Just a lot of tiny
animations to present the site is a drag.
But if you just add a click sound and a
button push animation to your TOC it can
be quite tasteful!
Ilona:
As
head of the Icon
Amazons,
what is your opinion about the female
iconists in the Macintosh
community?
Sara: I'm so
happy that we've managed to gather so many
great artists under one roof, and we have
the best of times! Sometimes my mailbox is
filled to the edge with inspired mails!
And I guess my answer to this question is
expected to be "they are just as good as
male iconists", but I won't say that,
cause I don't see the use of comparing.
What we wanted to do with IconAmazons was
to start a place where the female iconists
could feel that they are not alone, and we
succeeded!! Now we're taking it from here
and see what we can develop the site with
more! It's a bit of an experiment still,
but now we are more than 20 ladies doing
the experiment. Hilarious!
Ilona:
Is
there any personal thing that you would
like to mention about yourself? What are
you doing when not searching for icons?
What are your dreams? Where do you see
yourself, let's say, ten years from
now?
Sara: Most of my
spare time are occupied with my computer
works, not just icons. I also try to do
some genealogy studies etc. My utopian
dream is to sit in Africa and study
servals (feline animal) or something like
that, but I'm such a chicken I'm afraid to
take the big leap into a world of even
more unsafe economy than my last 10 years
have been...
And 10 years from now I
have a loving hubby, a couple of kids
perhaps and a big house in the country
side with a regular zoo indoors. At least
5 dogs (have you seen the show "All
creatures great and small" about the
Yorkshire vet James Herriot? He always had
a crowd of dogs around his legs when he
came home and a couple of dogs with him on
his rounds - that's my dream too!) and a
bunch of cats. I'll be in the computer
business somehow and do most of my work
from home. One can dream, can't I?
=o)
Thanks for being so
interested in me that you reached all the
way down here. I might add that I love
writing (as you can see) and it's hard to
make me stop talking too... I'm also a
workaholic, in a good sense. If there is
work to do I do it! Simple as that!
Thanks, Sara
for being with us. I wish your dreams come
true!
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