The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
—Marcel Proust
Do you ever see the world with new eyes? I tend to. Whenever we have to face up to buying a new car I’m suddenly aware of different models when driving down the street. Mostly I don’t notice that at all. And with this cabin project when we needed to decide on a roof my attention was drawn to roofs, when we needed to decide on colors I suddenly started to notice the colors of buildings, etc. And after the decision was made I went back to tuning them out.
In these cases my attention was short-lived because I’m not interested in cars and houses. Now fonts are a different matter. One thing I love about word processing programs and Photoshop is we have a wide choice of fonts to play with—thanks to Steve Jobs who had an aesthetic sense. That was as far as it went until I got my iPad and bought iFontMaker which lets me make my own fonts. It’s a toy but fun to play with and it taught me to install more fonts on my computer. So I’ve also been playing around with a number of free fonts and also bought FontBook for the iPad. It shows 35,000 professional fonts for graphic designers and for fontophiles like myself. I thought my interest was a personal idiosyncrasy, but it turns out there are a lot of us out there. Anyway, now I certainly do notice how people use fonts in magazines, newspapers, etc. They were there all the time but now they leap out at me.
What about you? Have you ever had an experience like that?
Yes, I LOVE my fonts. My favorite is Zapfino where some of the letters swoop down. I find it under FUN fonts. Then I use colors for more fun.
It would be nice to make your own fonts. You might add flowers in the middle of each letter & with photoshop??? add color to that.
I often see things with new eyes. Especially when I’m on holiday and everything around me is subtly different from what I’m used to back home. It makes me realise that things I think of as quite fixed and predictable are actually quite arbitrary.
Yes, my recent foray into refurbishing my wardrobe led me to observe what men are wearing now a days and once I had some idea, I swooped down on what I needed to fit my taste, but not completely outdated.
Men’s clothes don’t really become outdated. They’ve been basically the same since I was a child, eons ago. The lapels 30 years ago were wider, there was double-breasted, 3 button (but mostly 2 button) jackets, pleated, cuffs or not. Nobody would notice (especially men) when you still wear those, Ramana.
Women’s clothes change drastically most every year. (We spend more $$$. The fashion industry banks on that.)
Women’s shirts went up/down, up/down, from ankle to the mini-est of mini skirts. Same with the necklines. Earth tones one year to bright prints the next. ETC.
I heeded that when I was young(er). Not now. Example–I wear skirts hiking, no panties. Don’t tell anybody. It’s ventilated & is nothing to “go to the bathroom”. Today I wore 2 different prints, blouse & skirt. I didn’t see anybody but my husband. He does the (3 1/2 mile) loop the other way. We pass but not in the middle. He’s fast.
P.S. Even my jeans are outdated. My daughter’s Swedish jeans are elastic & are engineered to raise your butt to where it’s suppose to be. I see them here in the U.S.
Are the Indians wearing them under their sarees?
BHB, I wouldn’t know! I don’t go around investigating what Indian women wear under their saris. More truthfully, I have not recently had any opportunities to do so.
Generically, yes, the spandex mixed denims for jeans have invaded the Indian market too.
Bikehikebabe,
You can’t make fonts of more than one color. But some people do make them with symbols, animals, etc. Flowers are possible too.
Nick,
That’s one reason travel is supposed to broaden us—mentally, not just physically!
Rummuser and bikehikebabe,
Andy and I are hopeless about fashions. We each have a style we like and stick with it. We’ve done that for years.
I have regular “day-out” drifting around the region as far as public transport/feet can take me. But since I started my new programme-certificate, I have been noticing a lot more. Yesterday, I finally remembered to take my digital-camera with me and got some interesting shots…that might or not be part of a future project…
>Do you ever see the world with new eyes?
– Going by this definition of ‘new eyes’ – yes! All the time! I laugh at myself, too, for noticing routine things for the first time.
>In these cases my attention was short-lived
– It’s the same with me. Although, when I remember to notice those things, I get a little flashback about why I noticed them the first time around.
>One thing I love about word processing programs and Photoshop is we have a wide choice of fonts to play with
– I guess not being artistically inclined has not drawn me to fonts. For some strange reason, I just do not like the most basic and common one – Times New Roman. I like the crispness of the sans serif fonts on the whole.
Kate
Fonts are exciting…I have many favorites.
Eyes? Two new pair of glasses; one dark, the other light, both matching the skin tone.
Clothes, oh dear… I remain a ‘classic’ so I won’t easily go out of style. My joy comes with the accessorizing: modern, bohemian, hippy, and hop-pop are easy with the right costume jewelry! Wow!
Yes, it’s fun when our consciousnes gets raised and our eyes are opened. That’s the most exciting part for me.
Kate,
I agree with you about Times New Roman. I use arial the most (which in some peoples’ minds brands me as a clod). If you notice my graphic contains mostly sans serifs.
Dixie,
I’m glad you found frames that you like. I’m not always so lucky. Your strategy of keeping the clothes and changing the accessories sounds very smart to me!
Oops. The first part of my comment should have been
Cathy,
Yes it’s fun when our consciousness gets raised and …..
Jean, I saw this article recently and saved the link for you.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-people-hearken-o-earth/
I’ll be honest and say I haven’t read the entire article because my head began to hurt a few minutes in. I really hoped to learn something new (and random for me), but nope.
Hope you enjoy it though.
Kate
Kate,
Thanks!