Question about text in your work

[Illustrator]

Is it ok to have placeholder text in your work instead of actual copywriting or information? For example, say you conceptualized and created your own fictious company for a poster, and besides maybe the title, slogan, does the copy text need to be actual information or is placeholder text ok? This could apply to brochures, package design, etc.

Thank you for your input.

[Vikia]

I use "lorem ipsom" place holder text all the time. It helps the copywriter (sometimes) to know how much text is needed (before they ignore it and write way too much text). But I like to suggest headline text myself by placing it in for impact. That does not mean the copywriter will not change the headline.

[mojoprime]

i always liked the old jabberwocky xtension in quark, but now, i actually like to use klingon when i can.

no lie, i've had people sit there and try to translate the lorem ipsom. i had five years of latin and i know it's gibberish. some people... ;)

[Andi Creffield]

'lorem ipsom' here. It's still important to view a design with dummy text before any content is written.

But sometimes you do want to design around the actual content.

[Broacher]

i always liked the old jabberwocky xtension in quark, but now, i actually like to use klingon when i can.

no lie, i've had people sit there and try to translate the lorem ipsom. i had five years of latin and i know it's gibberish. some people... ;)

Not, entirely. It's based on real text... or texts.

Read all about it: http://lipsum.org/


If you're looking for some amusing placeholder text alternatives:
http://www.duckisland.com/GreekMachine.asp?strLanguage=technobabble&strParag=3

[mojoprime]

right. unless you start and stop it a bunch of times, from dragging around blocks of text, or creating new paragraphs...

[Broacher]

Ass skedaddled kickin' yeehaw woman neighbor's chitlins, grandpa, barrel caught. Hootin' liniment skanky preacher slap cousin. Than water wagon marshal marshal rightly, drive confounded rat burnin' whoopin'. Yeehaw damn heffer hold, wagon tonic, cipherin' afford. Plug-nickel shootin' butt marshal, soap, where ignorant highway, deep-fried.

Fit go, gritts hee-haw, me frontporch. Buffalo that his stinky hardware good whoopin'. Lament hollarin' damn, old poor smokin' fart slap tar uncle, hobo penny. Tar smokin', kickin' rattler hobo poker hobo damn, stew, outhouse.

Broke cain't pigs range tin no yonder heapin' got shed. Bankrupt slap, fussin', feud wagon rockinchair, plumb havin' cipherin' them done.

Oh... yeah.

The Dialectizer is lots of fun too:

i elveys leeked zee oold jebbervucky xtenseeun in qooerk, boot noo, i ectooelly leeke-a tu use-a kleengun vhee i cun. nu leee-a, i'fe-a hed peuple-a seet zeere-a und try tu trunslete-a zee lurem ipsum. i hed feefe-a yeers ooff leteen und i knoo it's geebberish. sume-a peuple-a...

OR...

i awways wiked the owd jabbewwocky xtension in qwawk, but now, i actuawwy wike to use kwingon when i can, uh-hah-hah-hah. no wie, i've had peopwe sit thewe and twy to twanswate the wowem ipsom. i had five yeaws of watin and i know it's gibbewish. some peopwe...

http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/

[mojoprime]

*claps* that's hysterical!

[Red Kittie Kat]

poor smokin' fart slap tar uncle


ROFL!! :D

[budafist]

I get the impression that you are going to use this placeholder text permanently instead of text.

I think it looks very unprofessional in a portfolio when people create mock-up designs with "Name here", "Title here", "text here" etc all over it. Portfolio work should look like real work. Even if it isn't for real clients.

You should make an effort to create text for big titles and everything if it is something with limited text in it like a business card. If it's heaps of text, I would write the first few lines before going into loren ipsum or placeholder text.

[Nekolove]

I agree with budafist. I also get the impression that you're talking fake text in portfolio pieces, which I think would look a little weird. If these are pieces you're creating from scratch you can always borrow text from other places, or just make it up. But either way, make sure you still spell check and read over whatever text you use. I promise tiny details like that really do count. They all show attention to detail that any employer or client will want to see.

[Broacher]

I also like to use literary extractions. For instance, I once showed a proof for a schoolboard logo/letterhead with this 'borrowed' text on the letterhead sample:

We had the best of educations--in fact, we went to school every day--'

`I'VE been to a day-school, too,' said Alice; `you needn't be so proud as all that.'

`With extras?' asked the Mock Turtle a little anxiously.

`Yes,' said Alice, `we learned French and music.'

`And washing?' said the Mock Turtle.

`Certainly not!' said Alice indignantly.

`Ah! then yours wasn't a really good school,' said the Mock Turtle in a tone of great relief. `Now at OURS they had at the end of the bill, "French, music, AND WASHING--extra."'

`You couldn't have wanted it much,' said Alice; `living at the bottom of the sea.'

`I couldn't afford to learn it.' said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. `I only took the regular course.'

`What was that?' inquired Alice.

`Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle replied; `and then the different branches of Arithmetic-- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.'

`I never heard of "Uglification," Alice ventured to say. `What is it?'

The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. `What! Never heard of uglifying!' it exclaimed. `You know what to beautify is, I suppose?'

`Yes,' said Alice doubtfully: `it means--to--make--anything-- prettier.'

`Well, then,' the Gryphon went on, `if you don't know what to uglify is, you ARE a simpleton.'

Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said `What else had you to learn?'

`Well, there was Mystery,' the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, `--Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling--the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week: HE taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.'

`What was THAT like?' said Alice.

`Well, I can't show it you myself,' the Mock Turtle said: `I'm too stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it.'

`Hadn't time,' said the Gryphon: `I went to the Classics master, though. He was an old crab, HE was.'

`I never went to him,' the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: `he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.'

`So he did, so he did,' said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn; and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.

`And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

`Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: `nine the next, and so on.'

`What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice.

`That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: `because they lessen from day to day.'

====

Most, if not all, of the classics are available on line in text form.

(Don't you sometimes just gawk at what REAL wealth we all actually have at our convenience today?)

[budafist]

That was fun :)

[yrs]

i dont like lorem ipsum as body copy, i think it gives strange patterns and rivers of white sometimes...

best to use some actual text.

[Ned]

Not, entirely. It's based on real text... or texts.

Read all about it: http://lipsum.org/


I would have called that a nerdy response, Broacher, if not for the fact that the poster before you uses Klingon. :D

[JustAGuy]

i dont like lorem ipsum as body copy, i think it gives strange patterns and rivers of white sometimes...

best to use some actual text.

Yeah but the problem with using real text that has nothing to do with the subject of the design is that it distracts. BTW Illustrator already said he wants to use real words and sentences, which he really should do like budafist en yrs said, because big character copy is part of the design.

[panzer]

my names lewis carroll pay up broacher

[Broacher]

Too bad King Lewie--the copyright's long gone on that one.