Heads or Tails: Mark: Make Your Mark

Favicons are those little icons in the address bar of your browser. You can make your own favicons easily at sites like myfavatar or favicon.ico. I had made poor favicons for this site and for my recipes blog but I wanted a more mathematical, trademark favicon to use across these blogs and my photography blog. We all identify each other by our trademarks, which are distinctive signs or symbols that each of us chooses. Our mark.

I went to one of my favorite sites that I use in labs with my students: the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives at Utah State University, an NSF funded project to make manipulatives accessible to all schools and students, no matter what their age. The site is always growing and is a priceless resource. You can now download all of the manipulatives for a free trial period. But if you are a student, a designer, a parent or a child, it is worth $40 to buy it. All of the manipulatives have directions and most have activities that are mathematically valuable without overwhelming any learner. Here is a screenshot of my desktop while I worked with the software:


I played with the pattern block applet, and tessellated (turned, slid and flipped) equilateral triangles and rhombuses in attempts to make a stylized M for meeyauw. The graphic you see in this post is what I came up with. I then used my mouse to select my creation. This kept all of my blocks "glued" together. I colored the blocks blue. I used Skitch to create a jpeg of my logo and Photoshop Elements to make the background yellow. I am sure that I did not need to use Skitch or Elements, but I am familiar with the software and could use them quicker than finding an easier way.

I uploaded my graphic to favicon.ico which made the favicon. I downloaded it to my hard drive and I will upload it to Image Shack. In the next few days I will put the URL of the favicon on Image Shack into my templates so that it will be visible. Favicon.ico returns an ico file which Image Shack does not accept. I will have to change the filetype in Elements or iPhoto before I upload it. I also see some editing I want to make on the graphic before I am finished.

If you have any questions on this process, be sure to ask in the comments (with your e-mail if you don't have gmail). I'll answer as soon as possible.

I'm still not happy with this icon because it is not the one image that I could use for my profile. . . for my signature, or mark. But it's a start.

To see more Heads or Tails participants, visit Skittles.
I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful week.
It may take me awhile to visit all of you because I teach on Tuesday nights. Thank you for your patience.

Technorati tags: Heads+or+Tails favicons Skitch Photoshop+Elements trademark logo icon

_/\_/\_