words

Like oh so many good things these days, I found this idea through Pinterest. On one level, Pinterest is a copyright catastrophe. However, if done correctly (i.e. pin from the original source people!) it is a wealth of resources and ideas and an amazing navigational tool for exploring the massive universe that is the internet.

It is how I found this little personalized poster project. Now, for a mere $20 CAD this company will prepare (in seconds!) a poster with your choice of words and colours which you then download and print at home. Easy, fast, and oh so effective.

OR... you can try to do it yourself. Warning. History has many examples of weird time-warp-traps one might fall into unexpectedly. Think Alice and the Rabbit Hole. Think the Twilight Zone. Think space phenomena like Worm Holes and Black Holes. Harry Potter's Pensieve. You get the idea. This is one of those traps. You'll get started on this little project and before you know it the Mad Hatter (in the form of a Labrador) will appear at your feet and demand that it's time for tea! Ah, but it is so worth it! After all, you've saved yourself $20 CAD and it has only cost you a third of your waking hours!

Lucky you, I have a few pointers that might speed the process a little should you decide to tackle this one too.

• use the website above to generate and preview a poster with your chosen words, split your computer screen and use this as a guide as you go
• play around with fonts - Trebuchet MS is always my favourite, but find one to suit your words or your style. IMPORTANT - USE ALL CAPS. It just makes the spacing work SO MUCH BETTER (there, I just saved you an hour of playing around trying to fix the spacing issue)
• use the MS Office "theme colours"  to help choose cohesive colours (in WORD, click the "Design" tab and look for the "Colors" button)
• only use a space between words -- if you hit the change lines button (i.e. "enter") your justification won't work properly
• play with the maximum and minimum sizes that will keep the words you want on each line for effective contrast. Yes, this will take forever (how about 36 point? maybe 37? what happens at 38? etc.)
• save your finished project as a PDF so that it doesn't alter when you go to print

A note on the words I chose: this is a famous poem that was read on CBC radio yesterday as I made my way in to work. It was in response to a satirical cartoon about a certain wealthy celebrity with political aspirations in the US.