Hola (Spanish Flag Colors & Smiley Face) by thelanguageemporium
More Famous than 'Hasta la Vista': a Great Everyday Design
'Hola', of course means 'Hi' or 'Hello' in English. It is probably the best known of Spanish expressions. With the possible exception of 'Hasta la Vista', made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in James Cameron's 1991 sequal movie 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day'. Of course, in the case of 'Hasta la Vista', most of us anglophones can only understand the expression if it is accompanied with the word 'baby' and said in a heavy Austrian accent :-)
This 'Hola' design forms the Spanish part of a series I made of greetings in other languages. I also made 'Bonjour' in French, 'GutenTag' in German and 'Ciao' in Italian. I love to learn useful everyday phrases and expressions in lots of different languages. As a dyslexic, actual linguist fluency in another language is highly problematic for me (if not impossible). It is, therefore, much more rewarding to me to learn useful snippets of many languages.
I think the word 'Hola' makes for a great 'everyday' design. You are going to make people smile wherever you go with this series of products. And that is the main motivation behind my work. I want to make people smile. There is enough grey and cynical in the world. Let's share some love!
What could be better than saying a big smiley hello to everyone you meet?
A Simple, Friendly Design for a Simple, Friendly Message: a Friendly Hello
This 'Hola' design is a very simple design. As I mention in my introduction to my online shop The Language Emporium, I am not an Artist in the painting and drawing sense of the word. I love color and form. And I love language. I try to create visual representations of how a language should 'sound' to me. A visual reflection of how the language is used in everyday life.
'Hola' is a friendly greeting so I wanted a friendly font to go with that friendly greeting. 'Hola' is also a simple greeting, so I wanted the font to be not only friendly, but also simple. It is also very important to me that the text on my designs is easy to read. Perhaps it is because I am dyslexia, but I have never been a fan of 'cursive fonts'. I find them difficult to read. As a side note, even though I am now 34 years old, I still can not write cursive handwriting. I still print - or scrawl - when I write :-)
The 'Smiley Face' is probably the most used of all the emoticons. I think because we like to smile at each other. A smile can mean friendship. A smile can mean sympathy. A smile can even mean sadness. In the case of this 'Hola' design, a smile means a 'friendy hello'. I really like to mix text with graphic. I feel a proper use of text and graphic can enhance the effect of both. I feel in this design, the effect is very positive.
Finally I used the wonderful warm colors of the Spanish Flag to color the text and smiley face. The 'hola' sits in a rich, warm red. The smiley face sits in a summer yellow. I think the overall effect is one of warmth and friendliness. If you would prefer this design in the colors of the Flag of Mexico, I have also created this 'hola' design in the Mexican Flag colors.
Hola (Spanish Flag Colors & Smiley Face) by thelanguageemporium
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