Showing posts with label Lorem Ipsum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lorem Ipsum. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Shell Game: Green Shorts from Express

I finally returned the Express shorts to which I had added text.  I actually went by the store, but then chickened out a couple of times before I finally did the return.  Express is the one store that has previously caught me; the clerk noticed a pocket I had elongated mid-return, while searching for the tag to scan the item back into their system.  That was quite a while back, and at a different Express location, but nonetheless, it has made me have a kind of superstitious nervousness about doing Shell Game there.  This return went fine, though.  I had purposely chosen a particularly stealthy alteration, in order to lessen my panic as much as possible.  As I posted previously, I added text to the underside of a pocket.  Here's a shot of the shorts turned inside-out, with the pocket pinned up:
And here's a detail shot of the text:
As per a blog-solicited suggestion, I decided to use Lorem Ipsum (the standard place-holder text used by type-setters, printers and graphic designers) for the piece.  After completing the first pocket I felt like it might look too much like a purposeful design element - like perhaps Express just decided to spice up the pockets by using a text-y print on part of them - so I also added more Lorem Ipsum to the underside of one of the button-flaps on one of the back pockets.  The orange on green looks a little more obviously hand-wrought and out of place than the black on white text.
After all that stalling, the return went quite easily. The clerk didn't even give the shorts the customary cursory once-over before taking them back.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Further Workshopping Some Green Shorts

In my last post I asked for ideas of what sort of text to add to the under-pocket of the Shell Game garment on which I am currently working.  I quite liked Jon's suggestion to use Lorem Ipsum (the standard place-holder text used by type-setters, printers and graphic designers), and so have gone ahead and done so.  Here's a shot of the shorts turned inside out, with the pocket pinned up to reveal the added text.
Here's a close-up of the Lorem Ipsum:
I painted the text in my approximation of Times New Roman, and as a result I'm concerned that it may look too much like a purposeful design ellement.  Since workshopping this piece worked so nicely earlier, I'm going to do so again.  What do you think - does it look like the text is just a standard mass-produced design element, or would someone who found it know that it had been altered?  If it looks too standard, what would you suggest to make it less so?  Some ideas I have considered include adding color to part of or around the text, sewing small beads onto the text to dot some of the 'i's, and adding more Lorem Ipsum to other hidden pocket areas.  But I would really appreciate it if you would just be creative for me again.