Composition: Legibility and Text Safe Areas

Activity 12: Legibility 

The class was asked to make fake greeting cards for this activity that included a semi-simple backdrop with text on top of it. I chose clouds from Google Images, because they are a relaxing scene. I wrote the word "Welcome!" on my greeting card as well. I wrote it in bold font to offset the blue of the backdrop, and I used sans serif font (meaning the words did not have feet on them). I felt that this made the card more inviting. The text had a bit of comic style to it to also emphasize relaxing, as if this were a greeting card from a hotel or promoting a place of travel. I wrote the text on the bottom left hand corner to add aesthetics of flow with the picture. The clouds look as if they are shifting from left to right and by placing the text where I did, it allows the eyes to keep the same pattern of view. My result looked like this: 

I enjoyed doing this project because it helped me to understand the importance of text and legibility. If someone wanted to make a greeting card with clouds and used soft blue font, and was hoping to use it as an important business venture, no one would take them seriously because they did not put enough "time and effort" into making their card seem realistic. It would look sloppy and incomplete, and therefore give a bad look to that business. I use this example in my head to make sense of an abstract situation for there are many more examples that people use text for in the every day world. Communication is how the world functions and keeps society moving. Text is a channel for that communication, hence its importance is monstrously important for every day life.