Creating Child-Like Text

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I do a lot of work that is nostalgic for childhood or intended for children (That probably reflects my current stage of development as a creative animator!).  One thing I like to do, is create text as if a child had written it, using the text as a graphic in the overall design of a piece.  Everyone usually just prints with their weaker hand to get 'scraggily writing', but even when I do I can still see some of the 'adult' peeking through.  I figured out that what makes children's writing so 'cute' is their inexperience at forming the strokes for the letters.  It's not just the weakness in their fine motor skills.  So, in order to 'stoop to their level' so to speak, I had to think of an 'unfamiliar' way to print the letters.

After a few tests and experiments, I figured out I could get that feeling of inexperience by writing the letters backwards.  I don't mean printing them so you can read them in a mirror, but creating the strokes of the letter in a backwards order.  Here you can see a sample line from a primer, showing how children are taught to make their letters.  If I reversed the stroke steps, I got the result I was looking for.

Here's a sample video, showing the process of stroking the letters backwards.

Happy Designing!

Posted via email from Kris10 Cartoons