Hola (Spanish Flag Colors & Smiley Face) by
thelanguageemporiumMore 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 HelloThis '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