Because you’ve probably always wanted to know, the acronym FAV can stand for many potential definitions. In the military it represents an abbreviated version of Fast Attack Vehicle or Fully Armored Vehicle. In water pollution analysis it stands for Final Acute Value. In product inspection it can stand for First Article Verification. In Venezuela it stands for Fuerza Aerea Venezolana (the Venezuelan Air Force). FAV can also stand for all sorts of other stuff like Formula Asset Value, Full Audio Visual, Facilities Assessment Visit and to farmers and growers, even Fruits And Vegetables. This is all really valuable information if you are intent on impressing your friends with a Rain Man-caliber selection of useless trivia. More commonly though, the acronym FAV, has just become a shortened version of the word FAVorite.
The word icon, on the other hand, traditionally has had a religious connotation as it is typically defined as “a representation of some sacred personage, as Christ (the image for this blog is Christ the Bridegroom) or a saint or angel, painted usually on a wood surface and venerated itself as sacred.” While plenty of folks in Orthodox circles still hold to such traditions of veneration, the word icon in a the more modern context, has been used to describe everything from movie production companies to small computer images designating particular digital programs.
What I never knew until recently though is that there is such a thing called a favicon. At first I though that surely this had to be some Fruits and Vegetables rendition of the Virgin Mary exhibiting at MOMA, but come to find out it actually refers to those little tiny icons next to the web address at the top of your browser that designate a particular page when you save them to your Internet “Favorites”. For example the Favicon for the MSN’s (MicroSoft Network) homepage is a multicolored butterfly; Because of course the first thing that people think of when they think of Microsoft is… pretty butterflies? Supposedly, MSN chose the butterfly because it is a “friendly creature,” grounded in the everyday that “represented the ‘everyday Web’ that MSN was striving to deliver.” Seriously?!? Personally I think it would have been far more accurate representation if it looked like “M$N” – but that’s just me.
Anyhow, apparently having your own favicon is the cool thing to do now because most big-wig companies and bloggers have them on their sites. So I started trying to figure out what the ultimate Chris Benek logo might look like. I wanted something original that represented my personality and interests while portraying my political, sociological, and theological understandings of the world. No big deal right? I mean if the best Microsoft could come up with was a butterfly so surely I could do better than that? Oh yeah, and it had to look ok too… The latter, as it turns out, is a pretty hard thing to do.
Loads of people have favicons, but all too few are done well and are memorable. Most of them are unrecognizable pixelated blobs that look like tiny versions of the trash heap from Fraggle Rock. Fortunately, there are a bunch of favicon generator sites out there that can help one to make their own favicon and get you up and running. Google it and you’ll see.
Still, I wanted something that people would remember that this is the Chris Benek site. So after thinking about it over and over… debating whether to use this design or that design… making tiny trash heap after trash heap only to come to the useless conclusion that the BEST favicon EVER would be a little severed horse head for a Godfather website… I had nothing. Well, I guess I had did actually have something because what I ended up with was a digitally decapitated favicon of myself. God already made my image – so why mess with it right? Ok, so I had to shrink it a bit and it’s certainly it’s not worthy of veneration… but I still think it sure beats a corporate butterfly…
Now that you know what one is… What’s your favorite favicon?
