May 2015 - Jeanne Burrows-Johnson's Word Empowering Blog

Author Design Dilemmas 3, Color

An Author’s Inspiring Rainbows of Color

How many colors are in the rainbows you paint? There are many perspectives on the use of color in the art and science of writing. But even if I were an expert, this short space wouldn’t allow a comprehensive discussion of color theory [the traditional theory for mixing three primary colors to derive all other colors] or colorimetry [analysis of human color perception].

Variables in Color Perception. Most people can see three distinct ranges of color. Due to genetics, some women [called tetrachromats] are able to see four ranges of color. Sometimes a temporary inability to see some or all color is caused by illness, allergies, medication, or hormone replacement therapy. Even sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] may notice a decrease in perception of color. And, did you know that one out of twelve men and one out of two hundred women have color vision deficiencies?

Choosing Color Palettes For Artwork to Accompany Text. As discussed in my blog on engaging a reader’s senses, I believe that analysis of one’s genre provides the answer to many publishing questions and can help solidify authoring strategies. Empowering your words as an author can take many forms. One author I know brings a minimalist approach to her creative process in selecting art for a children’s book. She believes that faint sketches without full form, shape, or color will encourage children listening to or reading her prose to bring images from their own minds to their reading experience. This minimalist approach may be ideal for poetry and historical fiction. However, it would be at odds with the hard-nosed writer’s voice usually employed in a police procedural and would lack clarity for many non-fiction projects.
Art and Science of Writing
While minimalism is a specific art movement, the term may be used generically to describe the overall expression of modern art in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beyond an escape from classic realism, modern art focuses on the artist’s desire to interact with the minds and life experiences of his or her audience members.

Consider More Than Personal Preferences When Selecting Color. If you are new to wordsmithing, you may not be thinking about branding. But you might want to consider establishing the foundations of the brand for which your writing will be noted someday. And just as an effective editorial process dictates that writers carefully select modifiers to create a scene rich in sensory images, a distinctive color palette can be one element in a design aesthetic that harmonizes with and even intensifies the impact of text.
Writers’ Guidelines
Beyond technical research you conduct regarding coloration, there are several issues to consider. Does the style of your writing reflect your taste in art? Do you like the detail of classism or the sharp clean lines of modern art? Are you drawn to bright primary colors or muted subtle tones? Do the peach and aqua tones of a sunset in the Southwest reflect your taste and your work?

Regional Coloration. Differences in regional color can be indicated by the dialect[s] of your characters, as well as the scenes you describe. Growing up in Oregon, I was accustomed to the dark green of Douglas fir trees and the mosses that grow on them. The palm trees in Hawai`i are pale in comparison. In Arizona the array of green is mixed, depending on topography, season, and the amount of rainfall. So which green would be most appropriate to your project?

The Juncture Of Style And Color. In children’s books, hard-edged cartoon-like solid color images (like those a child might create) may be ideal. But regardless of the style of art you select, the bright saturated colors associated with modern art are popular with and stimulating for young children. Conversely, the sometimes dark tones of animè lend a sophisticated note to projects for both adults and older children. For most genres, classic realism is appropriate. To present images realistically, considerable detail and subtleties of color are usually required.

Articulating Your Artistic Vision is vital. Since it is unlikely that you will be the artist shaping the images that will highlight your writing, you must be able to describe your desires to whoever is in charge of publication. I suggest writing a paragraph outlining the specific elements you are seeking. As with a journalistic endeavor, an inverted pyramid structure is useful. Begin with an overview of the style you desire and then move on to specific issues like color. If possible, use technical terms an artist or printer will understand. For instance, consider specifying the tones and shades of colors you prefer.

When viewed under varied lighting, a color’s tone [intensity of color] or shade [how bright a color is] will be perceived differently. Personally, I have found it challenging to use what I have termed a plum color in artwork for Prospect For Murder [the first book in the Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mystery series]. While my artist Yasamine June [view her work at www.yasaminejune.com] generated a wonderful color for the book jacket, subsequent applications for the audio book and some promotional materials have deviated from the color and/or tones she utilized.

Samples Of Your Preferred Palette and style will greatly aid the person executing your artistic vision. These can be drawn from many sources: websites; books and other printed material; fabric and clothing; pieces of art. Consider offering the images of famous paintings. Simply naming a type of art or an easily referenced artist will communicate your wishes. Personally, I am drawn to the delicate images of classical Asian paintings, as well as the neo-classism of Maxfield Parish who was known for his use of saturated color. Unfortunately, since his work ended mid-twentieth century, a young artist may be wholly unaware of his work.

You can also provide numerical descriptions of colors. Paint Stores offer samples of colors, with numerical coding as well as alphabetical names. Printers can provide numbers for the Pantone^® colors of ink used in most hardcopy printing. And remember that you do not have to access a graphic art program to provide the color model numeration of computer font colors. Simply mark a section of text within a word processing program and examine the ranges of colors available under the drop-down arrow for font color.

I should caution you that identifying a color is no guarantee of how a printed product will arrive at your doorstep. Have you ever seen two editions of the same book, printed by the same company following the same instructions? Even in hardcopy printing, variations in color can occur because of differences in batches of ink or toner, the moisture content of the paper used, and production executed on innumerable types and conditions of equipment.

A final consideration in our discussion of color printing is publication via downloading from the Internet. If this is how your work will be published, you should consider using colors designated as “web safe.” Again, there will be varied results in what is viewed by your readers. If nothing else, variations in monitor settings can prevent uniformity in how myriad viewers will experience a color on your website or in your book.

Before we leave the topic of color, let’s consider the historical and classical interpretations of color. Some colors, like the royal purple from Tyre, Lebanon, were originally drawn from rare and precious sources. To produce even small amounts of the Tyrian colorant, thousands of Mediterranean Sea mollusks [scientific name, murex brandaris] were needed for the dyes with which luxurious garments for ancient royals were fashioned. Another historically rare color was the crimson worn by Roman legionnaires and wealthy matrons. Traditionally associated with power and wealth, this color was obtained from the kermes vermilio planchon, an insect that grows on the kermes oak tree [quercus coccifera] of southern Europe. Although the means for obtaining and utilizing dyes and paints have changed dramatically through history, their inner meanings have remained linked to aspects of nature.

Yellow and Orange – Associated with the sun and gold, these happy and bright colors are used for many attention-getting purposes. Depending on their tone, they may be linked to base and deeply discounted items, or conversely, to the richest and most valued products.

Red – Traditionally linked to sunsets, fire, blood, Mars the planet and Mars the Roman god of war. Red is now often associated with signature holidays like New Year’s, Christmas, and St. Valentine’s Day and certain nations like China. This vibrant color calls attention to anything depicted in it. It is sometimes associated with licentiousness and the concept of Satan.

Purple – Blending blue and red, this rich color is remains linked to the concepts and value of royalty, power and wealth.

Blue – In its deepest shades, blue speaks of clear waters and skies. In many religious expressions, it is associated with holiness and purity. This color is often utilized by financial and insurance institutions, as well as myriad industries dealing with healthcare that wish to be considered honest and dedicated to be well-being of their clients.

Green – Representative of health in nature, it is often used for health and environmental topics, products, and services.

White – Reflects light and embodies the presence of all colors of light. While many substances in nature are white, animals having pure white fur are rare, and therefore their pelts were historically associated with the power and wealth of royalty. Once difficult to achieve in pure form, white colored clothing was often valuable regardless of the type of fabric. The color is historically linked to purity, cleanliness, goodness, and perfection.

Black – Absorbing all colors of light, it is actually the absence of color. Obtained by the mixing of all primary colors, black is sometimes associated with darkness and evil in historical religious written materials. It is an excellent background for both vibrant and subtle colors.

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, and motivational speaker

For examples of sample color palettes, please also visit: https://www.ImaginingsWordpower.com/color/plays_on_color.html

Additional discussion of the nature of color is provided at: https://www.imaginingswordpower.com/wearing/wearing_your_brand.html.

Discussion of art is available at the following blogs:
Authors Design Dilemmas 1, April 2015
Confronted by a Fantasia of Fonts, May 2015
Rainbows of Color, May 2015
Winning Logos & Slogans, October 2015
Quality Book Production, February 2016
Harmonizing Branding Elements, August 2016
Book Promotion and Evolving Art, January 2017
Balancing Text and Space, February 2018
Successful Cover Art, December 2018

To learn more about the award-winning Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mysteries, including Murders of Conveyance [Winner, Fiction Adventure-Drama, 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards] and other projects, please drop in at my author’s website JeanneBurrows-Johnson.com . You’ll even find Island Recipes that might inspire your culinary creativity.

For more ideas to strengthen your Wordpower^© and branding, please visit: Imaginings Wordpower and Design Consultation.

Follow Me On:
Amazon, Arizona Authors Association, Apple Books,
Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub,
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave

Communicating with The Senses

Sense Memory: Words For The Eye and Palette

Are you communicating with all of your senses? The art of communication largely relies on visual and aural stimulation.
~ An author communicates with the written word.
~ A dancer creates a visual message with his or her body.
~ Actors and public speakers communicate with the spoken word and their bodies.

In the past, the sense of touch helped to share the message of written words, as finely tooled leather-bound tomes invited the reader’s fingers to trace the lettering on a book cover. Even the sense of smell may be involved, as the carved leather fostered anticipation of the remarkable thoughts within.

Today, all five of the senses of the writer’s audience may be involved through the communication tools of our multi-media civilization. Beyond the realm of streaming radio and audio books, there are audio messages being sent into space that may not be heard for thousands or even millions of years. We are also at the brink of attempts at smell- or taste-athon forms of entertainment.

The goal of any communicator is to ensure that their readers, listeners, and/or viewers will respond positively to their message. Sometimes the process for achieving this is straightforward, even mechanical. At other times, the gathering of ingredients for connecting with one’s audience seems happenstance if not magical.

A successful advertising campaign is an example of how this process can work. Most of us are accustomed to extending our minds beyond a limited promotional image and message to the full experience enjoyed when actually partaking of the featured product or activity. Whether viewed in a full-page magazine ad or television commercial, the sight of a glistening golden turkey on a platter is expected to invoke memories of holiday feasts shared with our loved ones…rather than the reality of a studio of near-strangers focused on taking pictures of an artificial bird glued to a platter and painted with an oily brown glaze.

Sadly, the perception of truth can be more important than truth itself. For example, I recall being instructed about the art of opening doors, shaking hands and kissing on stage. I quickly learned that the natural ways of performing these tasks were irrelevant. The actors had to adjust their movements to make the audience feel comfortable with the actions necessary to theatrical performance.

To ensure our audience will be accepting of the images we have created, the artful wordsmith must do more than employ accurate vocabulary. This is one reason that translation of text from one language to another is so difficult. In fact, in addition to being an editorial process, it is a fine art. Merely selecting a word that correctly describes something does not make it a successful choice: The descriptive word you eventually choose must evoke the most appropriate image to both your genre and your audience.

Consider how you might employ the following words and phrases: Azure, blue, and sapphire; highlighted, revealed, and shone down upon; bright, luminescent, and sunny; juicy, moist, and succulent; boar, ham, and pig. Depending on the scene being described AND your audience, the text you compose from these words will differ. While the word blue may be appropriate for an advertisement, a children’s book and a romance novel, the same cannot be said for luminescent, azure, and succulent.

As adults with sophisticated English vocabularies, we may envision immediately the magical sparkle of a luminescent sky and the moist deliciousness of a pork loin described as succulent. However, these word choices would be inappropriate for a children’s book intended for a beginning reader. Our creative process may draw on a rich palette of images within our mind’s eye, but it must be tempered by the realities of the genre in which we are working.

Refining our writer’s palette is one of the most important authoring strategies we can employ, regardless of whether we are working on fiction or non-fiction projects. In my work as a practitioner of the art and science of writing, I seek to create a juncture between language and the sensory organs. I do this by striving to balance carefully chosen nouns and modifiers within an appropriate structure to provide my targeted audience with a rich sensory experience that they will accept within the current genre.

There is, of course, no right or wrong decision in the scenarios you create as a writer. The options are many. The choices are yours. But as you work on any project, consider the demographics, as well as the expressed responses of members of your audience. In the end, your word selections should be guided by determining the effect you wish to create in each passage…

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, and motivational speaker

For examples of sample color palettes, please visit: https://www.ImaginingsWordpower.com/color/plays_on_color.html

Further discussion of the nature and impact of color is provided at:
https://www.imaginingswordpower.com/wearing/wearing_your_brand.html

For more ideas to strengthen your Wordpower^© and branding, please visit: Imaginings Wordpower and Design Consultation.

Follow Me On:
Amazon, Arizona Authors Association, Apple Books,
Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub,
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave

Design Dilemmas 2, Fonts

Confronted By a Fantasia of Fonts?

You’ve completed your research for a writing project. You’re through composing and editing the text. What a relief! But if you’re in control of printing and/or publishing the finished work, you’re probably facing several decisions about its appearance. While there are clear differences in design for hardcopy and electronic publishing, you may find that layout is not an issue—if your text is being dropped into a predetermined format, as in an existing website or magazine.

Whether or not this is the case, you may need to select and apply the fonts that will present your message to the world. If you have written a piece of fiction, you may be facing fewer considerations. In this scenario, the sections of your piece may not exceed a title page, table of contents, preface, prologue, chapters, epilogue, and acknowledgements. If so, a single font family may be ideal for the entire work—with variations in italics, all-caps and bold face.

But if your piece is non-fiction, you may have additional elements, such as: An Introduction, Afterword, and Appendices; Glossary and Index; Graphs and Charts; and, Photographs, Pictures, and Illustrations. While simplicity in visual elements is ideal in any reading material, you will want to ensure your presentation has a positive impact on the reader. And this may require the use of more than one font family.

Your first consideration in font families is the choice between serif typefaces [historically referred to as Roman typefaces by typographers] and sans-serif [Gothic] typefaces. Unfamiliar with the term serif? You’re not alone. A serif is a small tic or line placed on the ends of letter strokes. To compare these two categories of typefaces, let’s examine the differences between the classic Times New Roman and Arial font families. While the former looks fancier with its little tics, the latter is straighter and bolder.

But before you declare the cleaner look of Arial ideal for all purposes in our modern world, consider the issue of eye fatigue. When we stare at the same kind of image [i.e. a uniformly straight font] for very long, our eyes become tired…and when that happens, your audience may lose interest in the message you have worked so hard to produce. Therefore, consider using a mix of two or three font families that will make the various parts of your work pop. Not only will this lessen the chance of your reader becoming tired, it may increase the likelihood that he or she will remember your key points.

In general, for both print and electronic purposes, sans-serif font families are ideal for section titling, and sub-categories or menu labels. This bold lettering says, “Stop and Pay Attention to Me.” Although you may not be able to lessen the number of words used in a title, if you limit menu labels for website and other electronic publishing to one to three words, they will be memorable. Conversely, for the body of your text, you may want a serifed typeface, that allows the letters and words to flow from one to the next, while minimizing eye strain.

Before moving on, let me clarify that I am NOT suggesting you go wild, using a wide mixture of font styles and treatments in hopes of looking artistic. While I have suggested using three font families, in most cases, two of those would be non-serifed fonts for titling and menu labels. Titling might be in classic Arial [in bold], while the labels of menus might feature a smaller and tighter font such as Arial Narrow. For wide, easy-to-read text, I prefer Palatino Linotype rather than the Times New Roman that most computers will default to, if the specified font is not loaded.

There are many details to the history of the design and use of fonts that reach beyond the scope of this discussion. One is the mathematics of font spacing, which you may find mentioned in your own research of the topic of fonts. Simply stated, a monospaced, fixed-pitch-or fixed-width font is non-proportional, meaning that each letter and character occupies the same amount of horizontal space. This is in contrast to a variable-width font, in which the space between letters and characters depends on the actual space a letter requires. Since an “I” requires less space than an “E,” a variable width font may be helpful if you have a limited amount of width.

Let me also make a few comments on the judicious use of italics. While some design specialists are allergic to any use of them, I think italics are appropriate in some cases: Differentiating a slogan from the name and contact information of an individual or corporate entity; emphasizing a word or phrase within a large body of text; replacing quotation marks to indicate dialogue or a character’s inner thoughts. For me, I base my decision on using fonts on one key issue, How effective will this form of highlighting be? The answer often rests in examining the length of verbiage surrounding the text you propose to italicize. The overuse of any element reduces its effectiveness.

A similar evaluation should help you in determining when to use a bold font. Consider business cards that offer every letter and character in bold…Without a variety of shapes, color and emphasis, the reader is likely to be indifferent rather than impressed.

In closing the book on fonts for today, let me say that your ultimate choices will depend on your individual taste and style. To help you refine the process of choosing fonts, I recommend you collect a number of business cards (and maybe a couple of brochures) and consider the elements that appeal to you. Spread the printing samples out on a neutral background and ask yourself, “What does the text style say about the featured person or business?”

~ Is the presentation organized and easy to read?
~ Do I relate to the person or business? Do I trust their message?
~ Does the message reflect current standards for the industry or genre?

If you find yourself responding negatively to the sample materials, envision how you might improve both the message AND its delivery. As to your own work, ask yourself two questions. “Is my proposed use of fonts going to accomplish my goal of impressing the reader with my message?” And, “What will my choices in fonts and other design elements tell readers about me?”

My signature font family is Peignot. For titling and limited amounts of text, I often use a mix of the Peignot and Arial Narrow fonts [see the logo at the top of this post]. By embellishing these non-serifed fonts with varied treatments of sizing, texture, and color, I hope to announce that I’m progressive in perspective yet respectful of elements of classic design. Do you think I have accomplished my goal?

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, and motivational speaker

For more ideas to strengthen your Wordpower^© and branding, please visit: Imaginings Wordpower and Design Consultation.

Follow Me:
Amazon, Arizona Authors Association, Apple Books
Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave