ISO Art Department: HS Art: Text as Texture

In-Class Assignments: The Importance of Words and Font

Students learned that words themselves and the way they are visually communicated effect the outcome of how they are perceived. Students learned about how words form lines and how the orientation and direction of those 'lines' add subtle meanings, i.e. horizontal lines = landscape (horizon line), tranquility, sleep; vertical lines = power, strength, stability; diagonal lines = energy, and motion. They also learned about font: serif and sans serif and how text complied together creates an implied and sometimes an actual texture on the surface of an artwork.

Quick Description of Assignments:

This was a pre-insturction assignment, students were using their own ideas of how to generate art from previous knowledge and their natural intuition. Students were asked to write a 70 word essay, journal entry, poem, etc. (there were no boundaries about the subject matter.) With their writing they had to create a piece of art on a 12" x 18" white paper that: used all of their words, repeated some of the words, and had an aspect that was overlapping another.
After students learned about font, they were asked to create an original font. They had inspiration from fonts found at www.dafont.com.
With a part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I Have a Dream," which was given to them in various sizes and specific selections, students were asked to create a piece of art on a 18" x 24" paper that took advantage of black and white paper.