Composition: Word Portraits

Activity 15: Word Portraits

The point of this activity was to demonstrate the way one can amplify words mean more than just letters on a page. We were asked to pick 2 fonts that we could accurately describe by altering the words in any way we could. Then we were asked to pick 2 fonts that we would contradict by altering them. I altered my fonts through PowerPoint.

Descriptor words:

The font I chose for this is called "American Typewriter". I think my words describe this word very well. When I think of typewriters, I think back to the old days when people spent hours in front of that big machine trying to type 4 sentences because one wrong letter and you had to start from the beginning. People had to learn to be very articulate early on so they spent less time messing up and more time getting their work done. This why I decided to use studious. The brains that went into using a typewriter must have been much more advanced than now when the computer pretty much thinks for you. I used the descriptor historical because technology has become so advanced that typewriters do seem ancient at this point. I like the font color the way it was. It's classic, which is what I was trying to capture with this word. Also, I underlined studious because that was the main point I wanted people to pay attention to, and if I didn't change the color, I had to get people's attention somehow. I put a period at the end just for nostalgia. When I think of historical writing I think of how many more periods were used back then.

This font is called "Chalkduster". It obviously explains why I used the word childish to describe it. Chalk and kids go hand in hand. I used a light, fun color to emphasize the youth of this word. I picked a lighter color because it also seemed to resemble that of a crayon outline, which only helps to emphasize more the description to this font.

Contradictory words:

This font is called "Brush Script std". This font reminds me of elements like: graceful, elegant, calm; almost like a ballet dance. This is why I chose to contradict it with Abrupt. Abrupt is harsh, unfriendly; everything that elegance is not. I also kept this black because black is a very standout color when it's against light backgrounds.

This last font is called " Cracked". The title of the font may make sense with my word choice, but the explanations of why I chose this word to describe it will make sense in a minute also. When someone says they have OCD, they are sometimes saying they are extremely neat, or that they have to do routines in a certain way; extremely organized. So when I use this chopped up font that doesn't connect to make the letter a full letter, or  is this lavish red color, and the spacing and word size are not equal; this describes everything that is not clean, neat, or crazy orgaized. Hence why my word is contradictory to the "cracked" font.