Ten Commandments Example

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

OK, remember this is our first attempt at something like this, so please be kind, this is 5 feet tall. We need constructive critism, but PLEASE be nice.

We immediately thought we did not like the oak because of the grain but the people start telling us that is why they liked it. So . . . not sure which way to go from here.





Attachment 272373

[Lawrence Richards]

looks beautiful to me

I agree and understand your situation with regards to red oak- on one hand the signature patterns are very pleasing but on the other hand the grain differentiation can sometimes be distracting.

In the future if you ever wish to tone down the grain differentiation, I've had success with a washcoat of water-based poly followed by a 2-coat filler of superblonde shellac and then buffed with green scrubbie. You can then stain/finish as preferred and the 2-tone action will be nullified somewhat while still allowing for attractiveness of the grain pattern to show through

(like this)


I think your rendition turned out beautifully the way you did it though- top notch work and it looks both rustic while still being a very clean carve.

Thanks for sharing it with us

Lawrence

[Mel Fulks]

I think the scale of the oak grain is a little big compared to fine print, might be better in person. The shape, layout ,and ornament all look real nice. And SO much easier to carry around than those stone ones !

['Jacques Malan']

5 feet tall, that is big. I like it.

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours ten commandments."

[Keith Outten]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the customer.

Honestly, I am not a fan of oak for this type of project BUT I would do the same as you have done if that is what the customer wanted. The plaque is well done, text seems to be very crisp and the presentation is spot on....if you reproduced this same job on a piece of Corian, Maple or Cherry I bet it would be eye candy.

James, you are moving on up my friend
.

[William Adams]

Overall, it's nice --- technical quality is excellent. Agree w/ the concerns about the grain.

As a typographer, my thoughts:

- Goudy Old Style is an interesting font choice --- there’s a very nice opensource version w/ ligatures, small caps, &c. --- did you consider it? https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype....rts-mill-goudy
- choice of line breaks seems to be automatic, rather than hand-selected --- better to consider the phrasing (them that hate // me) and natural pauses (the Lord blessed the // sabbath day) and not allow the last line to be too short (my commandments)
- while centering creates interesting edges (and saves one from the difficulty of managing word/letter-spacing, allowing one to use the nice spacing built-into the font) it does have the possibility of a boring sameness.
- surprised you left off the numbers of the commandments --- set in small caps they would have added more visual interest and information.
- setting the ornament in two sizes looks odd --- either use it consistently, use two different ornaments, or leave it off entirely.
- spacing between lines seems tight, between paragraphs, too loose.
- please use proper curly quotes /a proper apostrophe (neighbour’s), not a typewriter stick quote (neighbour's).
- Inconsistent ending punctuation --- why no period for the last sentence?
- typo? (nor his ox, not his ass) should be (nor his ox, _nor_ his ass) --- may be others ---I'm not the proofreader in the family, that’s my sister.
- the all caps should be letterspaced a bit --- also feels a bit crowded at the top --- if a line in the head won’t fit completely outside of the field w/ breathing room, then it should be wholly w/in the field.

Books I can suggest:

- The Origin of the Serif: Brush Writing & Roman Letters. Catich, Edward M. Fra.
- Creative Lettering Today. Harvey, Michael
- The Art of Hand Lettering: Its Mastery and Practice. Wotzkow, Helm.
- An Italic Calligraphy Handbook. Knudsen, Carolyn
- Better Type: Learn to see subtle distinctions in the faces and the spaces of text type. Achieve legible, beautiful, and expressive type every time. Binns, Betty.
- The Elements of Typographic Style. Bringhurst, Robert.

Lastly, have you considered using a different translation? ``Thou shalt not kill.’’ is properly rendered as ``Thou shalt not (commit) murder.’’

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

[ - typo? (nor his ox, not his ass) should be (nor his ox, _nor_ his ass)]

William, THANK YOU so much for what I consider constructive critism, we really appreciate and need this, not that we understood all of it but it will give us a good start. The photo is so small that the "nor" may look like "not" but it is indeed "nor".

Thank you again.

Keith - our goal is do one in the Corian, I think it will look great, but I want to be sure and get all the kinks workded out first. Thank you for not only for your input but also for help on the design, in case you didn't notice : )

zll

[William Adams]

My pleasure --- let me know if you have difficulties sourcing any of the books or would want more suggestions.

Ask away if anything I wrote is unclear once you've got a grasp on the terminology.

You may find these helpful:

http://mysite.verizon.net/william_fr...hy/onetype.pdf
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_fr...type-sheet.pdf
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_fr...erminology.pdf

and enjoy these:
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_fr..._your_flag.pdf
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_fr...e_on_earth.pdf

[William Adams]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the customer.

One problem w/ that is all-too many customers, to be blunt, are ignorant.

This is exacerbated by the lack of attention paid to handwriting in schools, which sadly is resulting in a lessened ability to appreciate lettering art.

[Patrick McCarthy]

William, nicely done, sir. I am learning a lot just from reading your analysis. Lettering layout is something i seem to appreciate naturally, but have no technical training in it; I will see things and sense they are "off", and could be better with a bit more attention to layout, font, etc . . . . but have no idea where to start. Your references might help me fill the void. Again, thank you. Patrick

[bobby milam]

One problem w/ that is all-too many customers, to be blunt, are ignorant.

This is exacerbated by the lack of attention paid to handwriting in schools, which sadly is resulting in a lessened ability to appreciate lettering art.

I guess that I should not be amazed with comments like these but it still dumbfounds me when someone sees an interest of theirs as art and are so arrogant as to call others ignorant for not having the same passion. My advise is to not sell your work to these ignorant people.

[William Adams]

I'm saddened when I see ignorance defended.

I'm not expecting everyone to be a calligrapher, but the schools have an obligation to teach students to:

- write legibly so as to be able to communicate, and in cursive, so as to be able to express themselves efficiently
- read cursive so as to be able to read historical family letters, or documents
- appreciate and identify good proportion and balance and to understand relationships such as the golden mean

These basic abilities improve a person's ability to appreciate art and design, their lack detracts from the same.

Ignorance damages society, knowledge enriches it.

William

[James & Zelma Litzmann]

Just to let everyone know, we made this to place in our shop, not as a special order. I was in our shop for about one hour on Saturday before it sold. The gentleman came in today to pick it up. We pointed out the mistake and he smiled from ear to ear and said, "No, we still want it". We promised him that if it ever got to be an issue, we would replace it, just to let us know, he did NOT want us to correct it.

Oh, by the way, the lady is a prominent M.D. here in town and her husband, who picked it up, is a M.D. in a city about 50 miles west of us.

Thank you for all you help and input, you guys are great!

We are blessed beyond measure . . .