Monday, March 21, 2011

Word Art

I love fonts.  I have almost 7,000 of them on my laptop.  It's a sickness.  I also love to design with words.  My 'quotes' file is jam packed and I love collecting and bookmarking ideas for designs. If I had unlimited time, I would love to play with and make things from these ideas.  A few years ago I started making these word collages for some of my family members:

I gathered words from siblings &/or children and then, with my Illustrator program, choose 3 or 4 fonts and 2 or 3 colors and started placing the words like a puzzle.  They turned out to be really meaningful, personal gifts that could then be framed as a piece of art.

A couple of months ago, I came upon an interactive site called WORDLE.  I wish I would have come up with it.  It allows you to enter words (as many as you want) into a form and then when you click the 'GO' button, your words become a really cool design piece.  You can then choose to randomize the document and it will switch it up with different fonts and colors.  I did learn a couple of tricks as I was playing around on the site such as: the word(s) that are repeated become the largest, and it's a good idea to keep a copy of your text just in case you want to try a bunch of different designs.

Here are some of my favorite creations that others have posted from the site:



And here are a couple that I did on the site:
This is text from one of Elder Uchtdorf's talks

This is text from 'A Proclamation to the World'
I love them!!  I will definitely use this amazing site for some of my 'word/font/quote' projects.

WELCOME!

Almost everyday, I see or find something I want to share with someone. That's why I'm often saying something to the effect of, "Hey! Look what I found...". As I gather ideas and inspiration from everything around me, some of these things actually turn into projects: invitations, party favors, decorations, gifts, things for my friends, things for weddings, things for my house, things to eat, etc. But truthfully, most of them go in my files. And, yes, I actually am the kind of person who goes back and looks at them. In my perfect world, I would have ample time to create (or attempt) every fabulous project, as well as endless resources to purchase all of the beautiful, unique, and sometimes quirky things I come across. But until then, I would love to be able to share this obsession I have of looking for the next incredible find. So, come back often--it will be an insight into my thoughts (which I always find entertaining, at the very least) and an adventure in creative possibilities.