Unique Words (II)

Turns out that little, thinking block is still there. Just can´t get myself to write about more complex topics. Maybe I just need a break. Well, till the thinking block is gone, I am going to share another set of uniquely rare words and amateurish graphic designs.

Again, the background pictures are made by other photographers. And just like last time, I don´t know the names of the photographers. It was a long time ago and I don’t know that I needed to credit the photographers in the future, therefore I did not write down the photographers names. It is not like I don’t want to credit the photographers since they deserve credit for their beautiful artworks but I forgot.

Graphic design-wise I just chose what looked the best and made the most sense at that time. The font is because Saudade is the longing for something or someone, which indicates that the something or someone is in the past. For me, the past always means childhood, therefore the childlike handwriting font. I wanted to make the word stand out therefore the word is a bit more saturated than the definition. The colour scheme is just me playing with the sunset colours.

I felt the obligation to add that the word is Portuguese on that picture even though in my opinion that picture would look so much better if there was no language in brackets because it just distracts from the essence of that picture. However, I wrote it down nonetheless, now I just have to live with it whether it was a good or bad decision.

Last but not least the photo. I chose that photo since it made sense. The person in that photo just looks off to the distance. It was my interpretation that he is remembering and longing for something or someone. At least the way he looks, looks distant. If that makes sense because you can´t see his face therefore I should not have an idea of how he looks into the sunset. In other words, I made a few assumptions. I digress.

The sunset just fits perfectly in my opinion since that someone or something may never return just like how the sun is setting. I am fully aware that the sun comes back in the morning and I want to emphasize that the definition clearly states that something or someone ‘might’ never return.

This word just hit close to my heart, since when I am bored I find myself subconsciously walking down memory lane. I can remember so many great things from the past and I constantly have a longing for the simpler past where nothing you do had a huge impact on your future. However, I realize that the past will never return. Therefore, it is called the past. The things that are lost, the people who are not the same anymore or the cultures that are gentrified. It just feels as if everything is changing and it is honestly a bit scary since why would someone change something completely fine, great even.

I assume that it is just normal to long for something that is absent even though it is a complete waste of time as well. I am just torn about this. Should I hold onto the past or look towards the future? We all want something that is no longer there or at least not in the way, it used to be there. However, how much longing is too much longing. As some people like to say “don't focus on the past or you’ll miss the future.” Honestly, I don’t want to miss the future I carefully crafted for myself but at the same time, I don’t want to forget the past. I guess the quote saying that “the past is a nice place to visit but certainly not a good place to stay.” It is all about a balance between longing & reality, want & need and past & future. (Don´t know why I am using quotes left and right today but here is another one.) “The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare it. The present is here, live it”

Oniochalasia. Honestly, I do not even like shopping that much. Don´t get me wrong I love to see the newest trends and designs since they are somewhat inspiring and satisfies my fashionista in my heart, however, I just cannot walk hours on end in a shopping centre while holding thousand bags. Shopping is somewhat boring especially if you know that nothing fits you in a store but the people you are with are staying there for hours and you just have to be a good friend and stay. I guess one can say that I am a fast and direct shopper instead of a leisure shopper. I digress.

Shopping for me is never relaxing since there are always so many people. Shopping is also not stress-relieving in my case since the idea of spending money (which I am short of currently) on something that I anyway won´t wear or use is nerve-racking. Therefore, this word is not applicable in my case. However, maybe there is someone out there who shops for stress relief then do I have the word for you.

Shopping for stress relief. There is a word for that. Who would have thought? I actually find it interesting what people do for stress relief. For me, I don’t know if there is a specific thing I do for stress relief but I do tend to do various activities for stress relief. However, sometimes I have the problem of being stressed out by the decision of only choosing one activity to do for stress relief. So my stress-relief method is somewhat contra-productive. Therefore I always question what others do.

From a graphic design standpoint, I can only say this is not my best work. It is one of my earliest works and back then, I did not quite know what I was doing. I was trying out different programs to find what is best for my needs. Honestly, I was playing around with these so I did not put tons of effort into those pictures in the first place. Nevertheless, I still have a thing or two I wanted to add to the armature graphic design process.

First, the colour scheme. For my graphic design where I just combine text and pictures, I tend to follow a few rules. It is just a fun challenge that caught on. For the colour of the text, I try to use colours from the picture. Most of the time I am biased as you can see. In this case, the colour of the text is blue even though the blue bag is the smallest (visible surface area wise). If you haven´t already guessed it by now, blue is somewhat my preferred colour.

Second, the background for the text. (I do not mean the background picture but the transparent-ish box behind Oniochalasia.) Again not my best work and definitely not proud of that. Maybe I could have made the words a bit smaller so the white-ish background would not have been necessary but there is nothing I could do now. Well, there is but … I do not know why I do not want to change it.

Third, the font. Now looking at that picture I can only say that the font does not quite work as nicely with the picture and the words. Normally, I see this font for beauty products. Maybe this font fits with the words since people could be shopping for beauty products. I just don´t believe that the font fits nicely together with that picture and the words it shows.

I have to start with the obvious. That font colour does not match the background. I do not know what I was thinking. A yellow-orange colour would have worked so much nicer with the picture. Just saying… or writing in this case.

This font for the word strikes me as a font a company for beauty products will use. And then there is the font for the definition, which is somewhat cursive. Let´s just say that those fonts together clash. Just like the colour, not my best work. Somehow, the clashing font and the mismatched colour theme just made something bad even worse.

The picture used for this Liberosis, I personally find very fitting. For one the woman in the picture just looks so careless as if nothing in this world is and can bring him down. The way her hair flies freely in the wind. She just looks so happy and spinning around in circles because of this happiness and carefreeness.

The second reason I find this picture so fitting is because of the flowers. I am no botanist or someone with in-depth knowledge about flowers or plants in general but to me, those flowers look like a wildflower field. It does not look like an artificial and carefully planned field. It looks freeing to a certain extent. Something this wild and this beautiful at the same time.

The next thought I have about the photo, in general, is the proportions of everything. The flowers take up the least of the space but it still leaves a huge impression on the viewer. Then there is the blond woman who stands out with her black-ish shirt but blends into the image with her hair. Then there is the blue sky that keeps everything together. What I find distracting though is the yellow blob in the top right corner. At the same time, I can´t imagine this image without it.

This word is coming a bit late since I already wrote an article about if ignorance is bliss where I wrote about how sometimes I desire to care less. It would not have made the biggest difference in that article if I did name drop Liberosis but it would have been nice if I did. I digress

There is just not a lot for me to say about this design, since I discussed the meaning of the word in another article and I already mentioned over and over again that this picture is perfect the font just ruined it to a certain extent but that is just my opinion. However, I must add that I like the word Liberosis as a whole. It just sounds so nice and is so easy to say. That word is somewhat liberating.

In this article I have been using quotes on every occasion I could think of as acceptable. The reason for the quoting is simply because quotes just sum up complex ideas simply and when I was still in secondary school, I found it easier for me to use quotes to explain my ideas instead of looking for the right words in the right combination.

On the one hand, using quotes just seems a bit lazy because I don’t want to look for the words to use to explain my idea. However, at the same time quotes are somewhat nostalgic. If you drop a quote and people recognize it, it just grabs your audience’s attention in my opinion. Therefore, I am slightly torn by if I should use quotes or not.

Otherwise, there is just not much to say about this collection as a whole. There are aspects of all three designs that I did not like at all. However, there are also aspects of all three designs that I personally found very fitting and alluring.

I always have personal biases, which influence my designs. For example, the colour blue. In the last two images, something else would have been more appropriate but I chose to go with the font colour of blue anyways. So there is that. I also have a preference for images depicting nature, therefore I did not like the second picture at all. Let´s just say that I still have to work on overcoming my biases in design if I want to make my designs better than the mundane armature designs in this collection.

Yeah, so there is that. Thank you for reading an uninformative article. Really appreciate that.