Font Poem Design Rationale

When I first read this quote, I knew I wanted to attempt to configure the words so they would resemble a sailboat. Mark Twain's poem was about dreaming and exploring, which I figured would best be resembled if I took the emotion and concrete imagery from the poem and created an actual image for the reader.

Once I realized that I wanted the words to resemble a sailboat, the main challenge I encountered was how I could possibly accomplish that. Originally created in black and white, the image was hard to decipher as a sailboat: people critiquing my image thought it was too symmetrical and pretty before they realized my intentions when they first saw it. Once I changed the words "explore. dream. discover" from being wavy under the boat to curving out and creating the bottom of the boat, it started to take form. Changing the background from plain Black to a beige flowing into a blue also allowed the words to pop out more, and the image began to come together. The change from beige on top of the image to a blue resembled the sky and water, like the boat was floating on the water. It became more lifelike. Another small change I made was moving the words in the bottom of the boat around so they weren't in a straight line. This was accomplished in an attempt to create a feel of the boat being rocky while it's sailing on the water. Changing the structure, color and placement of the words helped make the image more recognizable.

I am extremely proud of this image, because not only is it a quote that uses different typefaces and colors to convey an image or emotion, but I was able to visually create an image for the reader. Inside the image, I am most proud of the colors used. I was at a complete loss as to how I was going to use colors to demonstrate a boat; I got so frustrated after class that I decided I needed to take a break and come back to the project later. Once I decided that simply using different colored browns to make the bottom of the boat would make certain words stand out and better resemble a sailboat, everything began to come together. Using different swatches, like outlining the words on the sail and making "explore dram discover" under the boat bold, it completely changed the way the poem looked.

If I had more time, I would probably try to make the sail stand out more by playing with the background colors. As much as I like the background, I feel like a warmer top color and different blue would allow the sail to stand out and be a little more recognizable.