IconDropper was born on the Internet. It is a collaboration between a programmer with design talents and designers with programming talents. The whole development of this utility was done using e-mail and file transfers between Laguna Beach, California and Greensboro, North Carolina.
We hope that you enjoy using this product. You have heard the all the reasons why registering for shareware is a good thing. We would like to continue with the development of tools for people doing graphic design. We need your support to do things that are even cooler than IconDropper. Please register.
As you have probably figured out by now, this Read Me file is different than most others. We think it is important that you know who you are supporting when you register this software. Here are the biographies of the people who developed IconDropper:
Gedeon Maheux (gedeonm@macconnect.com) - Being a multi-media designer by day and a pixel-pushing, Marathon playing, Seinfeld watching geek boy by night takes a lot of effort. At least I have a loving girlfriend, an MFA in digital media design (from RIT), and tons of geeky friends to fall back on when things get REALLY rough. In the meantime, I'll keep pumping out those 32x32 canvases that so many of you have come to crave, like a good, cheesy episode of Xena: Warrior Princess.
Corey Marion (CCMarion@aol.com) - Digital media designing Photoshop pixel pushing 3D model making interactive application building internet web weaving animated gif creating sci-fi reading/watching macintosh/messagepad loving hiking skiing biking italian and mexican eating native of North Carolina.
Talos Tsui (Talosman@aol.com) - Talos is a digital media designer, he loves movies, science fiction, Macintosh and Newton. He also has a web site with icon sets drawn and loved by many people. He collects all kinds of things related to Batman. He's got a masters degree in computer graphic design from RIT. And he also loves dim-sum. What is that, I don't know? You have to ask him!
Craig Hockenberry (craigh@kagi.com) - I grew up in Tustin, California and started playing with computers when I was 16 (thanks Hank). I started playing with art when I was 8 (thanks Dad). Pretty scary that those are both common powers of 2. I wonder what will happen in 27 years when I turn 64?
Anyways, I have been learning since day one, have only recently started programming for the Mac. I had one of the original 512k Macs, but never really did any serious development on it (because I was using Unix machines at work). I've been working with advanced operating systems for many years, and it seems like now is a good time to take a shot at the Mac again. If Apple can get their act together with the Next machine (and the whole infrastructure based on Mach), then we are going to have one kick-ass machine. They've gotten themselves out of a corner before (with the Apple II and Lisa), let's hope they can do it again. The world needs a Unix that is easy and fun to use.
Off track again, back to my life story. I've lived in many parts of the world. I spent four years in Italy, living in a small city at the base of the Alps (Ivrea, for those of you with a detailed map). I worked for Olivetti as a consultant in document imaging. I enjoyed Italian culture and the unique work ethic. Anche potrei dire che ho una discreta conoscenza della lingua italiana e la gente e cultura italiana rimangono nel mio cuore per tutta la vita.
After my contract ran out, I moved to Sydney, Australia. Let's get one thing straight: they don't "throw another shrimp on the barbie". It's a bloody prawn, you damn septic! For those of you who don't know Cockney rhyming slang, a "septic" is short for "septic tank" which rhymes with "yank" which of course is short for "yankee". A prawn ain't a shrimp .. it's much bigger (and tastier). Maybe I learned to crap on like this in Oz...
In Australia, I developed an image processing system for satellite images and aerial photographs. This software worked in conjunction with a bunch of other software that drew maps from very complex databases. Some of the cooler things I did were to write programs that could display images layered by geographic coordinates (like Photoshop layering but with feet/meters instead of pixels/inches; layers also lined up automatically based on ground locations). I could also bend photographs so that they were geographically correct and then put them on a 3D surface. We also used a lot of Postscript for cartographic output.
We're almost there, I promise. I spent last year producing a children's multimedia CD-ROM. There were 15 games about animals. I learned that making an interface that kids want to play with is one of the hardest things in the world. I also learned that you need good writers and designers to make a successful product. We sold about 30,000 units of the product over the Christmas 1996 season, just after the publisher decided to kill the product line. Go figure.
I currently live in Laguna Beach, California. For the last year, I've been programming my Macintosh. IconDropper is my first shareware application. I would like to do more of them.
I, like the rest of you, was blown away the first time I saw the Iconfactory icons. I was starting to get carpal tunnel syndrome from doing so much cutting and pasting in Get Info. I figured there had to be a better way, so I started working on IconSetter at the beginning of February 1997. I sent the first version to the factory, and the forman beat it into shape. Then I reassembled the pieces. Then he beat it into shape again. It's so different now, that we call it IconDropper.
Thanks to the Iconfactory for all their help and the inspiration to make an icon utility that doesn't suck. Maybe if we actually make some money off this project we can see each other face to face. It's pretty amazing how the Internet changes the way we can work...
Thanks also to Apple, Metrowerks and Adobe for the excellent tools we used to make IconDropper. This product wouldn't look the same without PowerPlant, Photoshop and the MacOS.
One last thing: I have a digital portfolio that shows some of the other work I have done (in both digital and more traditional media). If you have a Mac with a 1024 x 768 display in thousands of colors, you can get a copy by sending a Zip disk to: 174 Fairview Street, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. I'll fill the disk and send it back to you. It's worth a couple of bucks in stamps...
The Future
We are available for other projects which involve creative and useful interfaces. For a look at our talents, go to the Iconfactory web page and link to our individual home pages.
We are also exploring ideas for other graphic design tools. If you have an idea for something that would make your life easier, just let us know.
