Holiday Orders

All holiday orders have been sent out. If you've yet to receive yours, please email me before Sunday. paulsahner@gmail.com

Christmas Orders

I am working on and sending out christmas orders RIGHT NOW. All orders WILL be sent out by tomorrow.

Orders I'm currently working on (by orderers initials):
VE
JH
CT
SW
MJ
SMW
JM
WB
DH
PJM

Another happy customer!

Check out what our IconizeMe customers are saying:

http://www.mitchgroup.com/2006/11/drum_roll_pleas.html

Holiday Special

For a very short time, I will be accepting orders.

More information here:

http://www.iconizeme.com/holiday.html

Quick Update - October

Here's a quick update on orders. Just sent out the following:
C.K.
G.M.
G.B.#1
G.B.#2.
Also in production are:
G.B.#3
H.H.#1 through 4
and
Mrs. V.V.
These should be going out this week. Again thanks for your patience.

Jose

Busy October!

We've been very busy at Iconize Me (as usual), and of course, we want to thank our clients for making us the number one portrait icon designers in the world.

In our commitment to keep our clients up to date on their orders, we will keep posting progress reports, as often as we can. So, having said that; P & L, V.V. and A.R. are all sketched, scanned and digitally inked. Now the fun begins.

Ya'll come back now, ya hear!

A few more

We're in full production mode, here at Iconize Me. I want to thank all for your patience. Just sent out today the following orders:
J.C.
T.N.
S.W.

I want to also thank our clients for all the kind comments and positive feed back we've been getting from them. There's nothing more satisfying than a happy customer.;-)

Quick update Sept 15

Just completed and sent out the following:

A.R.
B.B.
C.D. 1 and 2
D.P.
J.K.
M.L.

Enjoy!

More Updates

1) C.D.#1(band) is done, and I must say, it came out pretty darn good.
2) J.K. is colored and ready for the last phase.

So I think we're right on schedule. I will be sending out a large batch pretty soon. Stay tuned.

Updates on orders

This particular post, concerns orders that came in through my very good friend Jim. If you're in this group, I'll do my best to keep you posted. Ok, here we go:
1) A.R., B.B., D.P. and M.L. are all sketched, inked and painted. Which means they're about 75% done.
2) C.D. 1 and 2, as well as J.K. and A.P., are all sketched and inked. So, they're 50% of the way there.
If you didn't read your initials, please check back tomorrow.
Thank you all for your support and stay tuned!!!

Quick update

I recently updated/launched my personal web portfolio:

Click Here

Out of the woods....

All the icons are done, and sent out! If you ordered an icon and have yet to receive it, please contact me: paul@dv-graphics.com

The order page is still closed, but I don't think for too long. I just have a few other things I need to work on before re-opening to the insanity.

Disaster Progress

I suppose it's only fair that I provide an update, right?

So to repair my old G4 would have been $700...and that may not even be the actual fix. So repair was pretty much out of the question. I mean, I could get a nice stop-gap MacMini for the same price or less.

So what to do?

Well, I could get the MacMini, except:
-It can't do dual displays
-It can only handel one hard drive (internal)
-It's intel (I need Adobe CS2 and After Effects, and my Final Cut is not eligible for cross-grade).

I could also get a G5, except:
-The configuration I'd really need is about $3000
-It's "last years technology"
-The Mac Pro had just been announced and the G5 seemed just silly now


So yeah, I figured the best thing to do was consider the old G4 officially retired and just invest into a new "workhorse" machine. I went to the 5th Ave store and picked up:

Quad 2.66 Mac Pro with a 250 gig HD, 3 gigs of ram and superdrive.

With my education discount, it wasn't too much more than an older G5 with MUCH lower specs, so I did pretty well.

***
"But wait, didn't you just say you can't go intel because you need CS 2?"
-Yes, but, after reading some reviews and benchmarks, I figured it would be OK, because: Even under Rosetta, the Quad Mac Pro still runs most CS 3 apps faster than my old Dual G4. The key apps, like Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects (surprisingly enough) all run without any noticable glitches. And once CS3/AFX 8 come out, this thing is going to SCREAM.
***
I'm awaiting bluetooth and airport modules (they didn't have them in stock), I ordered a secondary 320 gig HD for backup, and I have my old G4 HDs sitting in Firewire cases for a combined 1TB of storage. The Superdrive I had in my G4 (An 8X DL deal that I got online) was easily installed into the lower bay on the Mac Pro...So very little is being wasted from the old machine.

When I got back to the apartment, I was able to get all of my data off the old G4 boot drive onto the new Mac Pro drive- After a bit of messing around with permissions (Migration Assistant didn't want to transfer anything correctly, so I opted for the scarier "Log into Root, transfer data yourself and correct the permissions later"). Everything was up and running in about 3-4 hours. I spent the evening making sure everything was working as it should, and installing the new Final Cut Studio (I need it).

The next day, got right back on track and immediately completed and sent out some icons. And that's what I've been doing. Each night, I've been sitting down and completing as many as I can and sending them out right away. I've got a LOT done, and they're all being sent out ASAP. I'm confident all pending order will be completed by the end of this week.

Here is a list of pending orders, listed by initials:
KCT
MW
MT
NM
CG
SD
AEC

None of those orders contain multiple icons, so things will move very quickly.

Whew. Ok. I think that's everything.

Disaster update...

So I have been able to recover all the orders- So if you haven't yet resent your image, you don't need to now. However, my computer situation is still dismal- So things are SLOW. AND on top of things, I'm moving into a new apartment on Sunday. I'm really failing as a human right now- Forget about businessman.

I REALLY appreciate the kind emails and infinite patience people have been sending my way. In the coming weeks, as I (hopefully) improve my computer situation and get settled into my apartment...things will clear up.

In the meantime, I have closed to orders...to prevent and even further backup.

Below is a list of orders I am currently working on (listed by orders initials):

TL
MS
DM
EA
KM
KCT
JB
MW
MT
NM
CG
SD
AEC

Big problems

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:
So last night my computer bit the big one. It seems the logic board, video card and main hard drive all died. It's a big inconvenience...But not the worst thing that could happen. I have several backup HDs with most of my data- My last backup was July 11th, so that's where I'm starting off again. Luckily the ONLY thing I'm working on during this summer is Iconize Me...I don't have any big projects lost.

So what does this mean? Well, right now I'm working on my powerbook- hooked up to a larger display so I don't strain anything. I have my July 11th backup connected to that- everything seems to be fine...But this is where you come in.

Any order placed AFTER JULY 11th is LOST. I will be going through my PayPal records and seeing how many of them I can recover without having any of my customers be bothered. Essentially, if you placed an order with a URL- I can recover it. If, however, you emailed me the photo, I will require you to email the photo again. If you'd like to do so before I contact you- feel free: paul@dv-graphics.com Just include a copy of your PayPal transaction number.

Now, aside from recovering lost orders, I am significantly slowed down in my work because of this. I know a lot of orders are already delayed...and this will only make things worse. I apologize. The majority of this is beyond my control. If you don't mind waiting, I assure you, everyone who has ordered an icon will get it completed. I just cannot quote a time frame right now. If you are not comfortable with this, please let me know and I will issue a full refund, no questions asked, and your order will be cancelled.

Big problems

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:
So last night my computer bit the big one. It seems the logic board, video card and main hard drive all died. It's a big inconvenience...But not the worst thing that could happen. I have several backup HDs with most of my data- My last backup was July 11th, so that's where I'm starting off again. Luckily the ONLY thing I'm working on during this summer is Iconize Me...I don't have any big projects lost.

So what does this mean? Well, right now I'm working on my powerbook- hooked up to a larger display so I don't strain anything. I have my July 11th backup connected to that- everything seems to be fine...But this is where you come in.

Any order placed AFTER JULY 11th is LOST. I will be going through my PayPal records and seeing how many of them I can recover without having any of my customers be bothered. Essentially, if you placed an order with a URL- I can recover it. If, however, you emailed me the photo, I will require you to email the photo again. If you'd like to do so before I contact you- feel free: paul@dv-graphics.com Just include a copy of your PayPal transaction number.

Now, aside from recovering lost orders, I am significantly slowed down in my work because of this. I know a lot of orders are already delayed...and this will only make things worse. I apologize. The majority of this is beyond my control. If you don't mind waiting, I assure you, everyone who has ordered an icon will get it completed. I just cannot quote a time frame right now. If you are not comfortable with this, please let me know and I will issue a full refund, no questions asked, and your order will be cancelled.

Getting Personal...

Think your Iconize Me! icon is hopelessly tied to your computer screen? Not so! Take a cue from Peter from New Zealand and set it free! Not only did he manage to get his icon on a mug, but also some postage stamps!

Orders

I'll be sending out a handful of orders tonight and tomorrow...Sorry for any delays.  I've been very busy looking for a place to live.  It's hard to get a lot of work done when the housing clock is ticking.  

Display Woes

The orders having been coming in at a very nice pace-  Keeping up doesn't seem to be too much of an issue right now...

What IS (or was) an issue is my main monitor started to die last week and severly slowed down my work (Can't do a whole bunch when half the display is dark).  I quickly picked up a really cheap 20" off NewEgg and got right back into the groove today.  

I have to hand it to NewEgg.  A 20" DVI-D widescreen for $299 with no tax and free shipping had me thrilled-  But what sealed the deal was that I got the monitor in one day (Ordered Tuesday morning, recieved Wednesday afternoon)-  I barely had time to track the package.  All that with their free ground shipping!  Way to go NewEgg!

Open!

Both Shalimar and myself have re-opened for business.  Order away.

Some changes and updates...

Soon both Shalimar and myself will be reopening to orders.  (Horray).  With school over for summer, there's more a lot more time to devote to the icons.

I made a bunch of MUCH-needed cosmetic changes to IconizeMe.com, tonight-  most of which you all probably won't notice.  But, here's the rundown:
- Made the white divider "lines" not so damned distracting.
-Made the text be, like, ya know-  REAL TEXT.  Before, and I have no idea why, all the text on IconizeMe.com was done in PNGs.  I guess I thought it would be easier to layout.  What a bonehead move it was.  I'm amazed it took me almost a year to change that.  As a result, I'll be able to update the site so much more than I used to.  I also changed it from a mono-spaced catastrophe to a simple Arial.  
-All the pages line up much nicer with eachother.  Readability is MUCH better.
-Gave José a much needed Featured Artist page:  http://www.iconizeme.com/jose.html
-Little things not worth mentioning.  I cleaned up little bits and pieces of code and other things-  Nothing thrilling, the HTML still sucks and will never validate.  But I don't care-  it works.  

I think that sums it up.  If you're one of the billions of people that visit the site on an hourly basis...enjoy. 

Complete!

Ok!  Whew, I finally got all of my orders out the door.  According to my list, everything is completed and sent.

If you have ordered an icon and not yet recieved it, please do the following:

1) Check SPAM folders.  This happens all the time, especially because I'm sending these a ZIP files which are commonly filtered.  

2) Check for any emails from paul@dv-graphics.com.  The subject line should be "Your Iconize Me! Icon"

3) Nothing?  Drop me a line.  Either the email just didn't get through, or (worse case, and rare scenario) I've misplaced your order and not completed it.  If this is the case I will, as quickly as possible, finish your icon and get it out to you.

I hope everyone enjoys their icons.  It's always fun to see how people use them, so if you have it up on your blog/myspace/facebook/forum, I'd love to see it.

5/11 Update

Sent out a bunch of orders last night-  I'm on the home stretch of this backorder...I should be able to finish everything tonight.  I'll keep everyone updated here.

MacNation birthday

Hey, 

They're having a fun contest over at MacNation to help with their mascot redesign.  They're also celebrating 10 years online.  10!  You can win a LOT of great Mac shareware-  including an Iconize Me! icon.  

visit http://www.macnation.org for more information

Delays

I'm right at the end of the school year and have been working around the clock on my portfolio and final projects.  I'm trying REALLY hard to get icons out along with it, but I'm just not able to match my typical rate.  

I'm going to work on a bunch tonight and hopefully ease the delay.  Those of you who have contacted me with various deadlines, don't worry, I will meet those no problem. 

If you need your icon by a certain date (birthday, etc), then let me know....Otherwise, it will just be a little delayed...But I promise everyone will get theirs.

4/10 Update

Sorry for the lack of posts / action.  Been very busy getting my portfolio ready for the end of the year.  

While icons haven't been moved to the back burner, they have been shifted to the left a little.  Sorry.  But I have been getting a bunch done in the past few days....Here's a list of orders I'm currently working on (in various stages, between just starting and 99% done), listed by orderers initials:

JM
JS
PJN
JA
DL
SW
DM
SC
MS
WJ
LJ
JO

Cool tools!!!

Just found some great filters in Illustrator that I, frankly didn't know about. For all of you that don't know, Adobe Illustrator is the software we use to digitally paint the caricatures and icons we make. The filter is called, scribble, and I'm so excited about it, I had to tell the world. Can't wait to use it on you guys icons.

March 14th Update

I sent out about 1/3 of my pending orders today.  I hope to get the other 2/3s done over the next 10 days or so.

I'm Back

Hi:
It's been a while since I posted, but we've been pretty busy at IconizeMe. Currently working on Glenn's order, and as soon as I'm done with that, I'll get started on Herb's. You guys wouldn't believe the fun I'm having with these.;-)

Signing out!

March 9th Update

Been busy tonight working on icons. 

The following orders have either been completed and sent, or are in the final stages and are due out in the next batch:
(Listed by orderer's initials)
WH
AS
MS
JW
OJ
CG
LT
CB
LB
NW
MX

The proof is in the cake

I love it when people come up with fun things to do with the icons:

http://www.dv-graphics.com/temp/aaroncake.jpg

Testing

Just testing a new blogging widget.

2/20 Update

I sent out a few orders this afternoon. After I get back from class tonight I'll be working on more. A lot of orders are just on the verge of getting sent...They just need coloring or whatever.

2/15 update

The following orders are almost complete and will receive their icons within the next group:

(Listed by orderer's initials)
CN
CB
SW
WH
LS
JT
AS
MS

Call for Help...

Several months Back, Leo Laporte's show Call for Help had a small feature on Iconize Me!

Here's a transcript:

>>Amber: YOU KNOW, JUST-- AND, YOU KNOW, IT'S EASIER -- OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WITH USING, LIKE, PHOTOS OF PEOPLE AND JUST THOSE TYPES OF PHOTOS, THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO COMPRESS THEM TOO MUCH SO THEY'RE BLURRY, BUT THAT -- THAT -- THAT'S FINE AS FAR -- AND AS FAR AS COMPRESSING THEM TO 20 OR 30k. THE NEXT QUESTION HE HAS FOR US, AND THIS IS A PICTURE OF HIM. THIS IS A PICTURE OF MARTIN RIGHT HERE. IS HE WAS THINKING THAT HE WANTED SOME KIND OF MASCOT FOR HIS SITE. SO, HE WANTED TO, YOU KNOW, MA-- MAYBE IT COULD BE HIM BECAUSE HE'S ONE OF THE EDITORS OF THE SITE. SO, I FOUND THIS REALLY COOL PLACE WHERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY GO, AND IT'S CALLED ICONIZE ME! OR ICONIZE ME!

>>Leo: OH, THAT'S SO NEAT.

>>Amber: AND WHAT YOU CAN DO IS YOU CAN SEND THEM IN A PHOTO AND THEN THEY HAVE THREE DIFFERENT ARTISTS, PAUL, SHALIMAR, AND JOSE, WHO WILL ACTUALLY TAKE YOUR IMAGE AND TURN YOU INTO A LITTLE ICON THAT YOU CAN PUT ON YOUR SITE.

>>Leo: I LIKE-AZAY.

>>Amber: I KNOW. THESE ARE MY FAVOURITE.

>>Leo: YEAH.

>>Amber: AND I THINK FOR MARTIN THIS WOULD BE A REALLY GOOD OPTION BECAUSE IT FITS WITH KIND OF THIS MUSIC SITE.

>>Leo: YEAH.

>>Amber: IT'S NOT TOO REALISTIC. IT'S GOT MORE OF -- JOSE DOES MORE OF KIND OF A CARTOONISH LOOK.

>>Amber: RIGHT.

>>Leo: SO, HE CAN GO HERE AND HE CAN E-MAIL JOSE. LOOK, WE HAVE THIS GUY. THAT KIND OF LOOKS LIKE YOU, LEO. A LITTLE SHUFFLE.

>>Leo: YEAH. YEAH, I LIKE IT.

>>Amber: BUT HE COULD GO AND HE COULD GET A PICTURE OF AN ICON AND HE COULD --

>>Leo: HOW MUCH DOES THAT COST?

>>Amber: IT'S PRETTY INEXPENSIVE. ALL OF THESE ARTISTS CHARGE BETWEEN 40 AND $60.

>>Leo: I MIGHT DO THAT FOR ALL THE TWiT GUYS. IT WOULD BE KIND GOOD TO HAVE THOSE KIND OF STANDARDIZED ICONS.

>>Amber: IT REALLY WOULD BE GOOD.

>>Leo: YEAH.

>>Amber: SO, YOU CAN CHOOSE WHICH STYLE YOU LIKE OUT OF ALL OF THESE DIFFERENT ARTISTS. AND, LIKE I SAID, BETWEEN 40 AND $60, THAT'S LESS EXPENSIVE THAN PRETTY MUCH ANYWHERE YOU WOULD GO TO ACTUALLY GET SOMEONE TO KIND OF CUSTOM CREATE AN ICON FOR YOUR SITE. AND ALSO IT'S NICE TO USE YOUR IMAGE. IF YOU'RE -- IT'S, IT'S VERY EDITORIAL, THE SITE HE DOES, THE 80's MUSIC CENTRAL. SO, IT'S NICE IF HE ACTUALLY KIND OF NICE ASSIGNS HIS -- HIS FACE AND HIS BRAND TO THE SITE --

>>Leo: YEAH.

>>Amber: -- AND MAKES IT KIND OF CARTOONISH AND FUN --

>>Leo: I LIKE THAT, YEAH.

>>Amber: -- AND USE THE SAME COLOURS THAT HE USES ON HIS SITE.

>>Leo: YEAH. AND HE CAN CALL HIMSELF LIKE, YOU KNOW, Mr. HOT PANTS OR...

>>Amber: OR HOT STUFF. MARTIN HO-- OH, THAT'S MIKEY'S NAME.

>>Leo: OH, THAT'S TRADEMARKED.

>>Amber: [ laughs ] BUT HE COULD DO SOMETHING, YOU KNOW. AND, AND IT'S A GREAT WAY TO JUST, YOU KNOW, GET HIS IMAGE UP THERE AND --

>>Leo: I LIKE IT.

>>Amber: -- HAVE SOME FUN AND IT'S PRETTY INEXPENSIVE.

>>Leo: WHAT'S, WHAT'S -- ICON-- ICONIZE ME?

>>Amber: iconizeme-

>>Leo: ICONIZE ME, I LIKE THAT.

>>Amber: -.com. AND WE'LL PUT LINKS TO THESE ON OUR SHOW NOTES --

>>Leo: GREAT.

Saturday update...

I've been busy, and got about 10 icons sent out this evening. I hope everyone enjoys them.
I won't be able to get any done tomorrow (got school work and the super bowl to attend to :-)

...But the next batch isn't too bad...there are no "multi-orders" (individuals who order multiple portraits in at once)- which I have NO problem with (don't be discouraged, by any means) but it does tend to slow down the process of getting orders out.

That's all for now.

Feb 3rd

I got 9 icons drawn out tonight. The next step will be to color and send them out.

To be colored/sent (initials):
BC
JH
NE
CF
CG

To be drawn/colored next
CN
CB
JR
SW
DS
WH

Icon Update

Just wanted to post an update....Icons have been going well. I sent out a bunch last night. Another bunch will be sent out in the next few days.

Open

Hope everyone had a good break (if any).

I reopened my order page this morning, so everyone is welcome to send me money ;-)