my person opinion is that text is unnecesary, and too many people use it because they think it adds to the picture.. to me, it gives me the impression that the person using it is a novice and is only doing it because everyone else does, without considering whether it is actually needed or not. There are a few exceptions to this of course, some people's art styles need typography... but generally... i think it makes the picture look worse. More importantly, i believe a good piece of artwork should be able to speak for itself without text to convey ideas. Thats just my opinion of course. i wanna know what you guys think about text, and if you use it, why??? (poll idea stolen off someone else)

I agree with you. Although I've done it to some of my stuff, now that I look back on it it was really unnecessary. That's also quite true about it giving off the impression that the person is a novice. I'll admit that when I added text to my pictures, I was still kinda new to photo manipulation, and saw it on other people's work and thought "not a bad idea, I think I'll try it". I tried it, then after a while I was like "why am I doing this again?" and so stopped putting it on my artwork. I know I still cringe when I see that whit, calligraphic font at the base of my older stuff.

I chose "not often" because the majority of occasions where I've seen people use text in their art has been my amateurs who think it's necessary to convey some meaning or definition.

However, there are times when text is used brilliantly, it is just... few and far between.

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oh damn i just realised i posted this same poll like a day ago lol woops stupid me

I also chose "not often"... I think it depends on the one hand on the work and on the other hand on the text itself. Text positioning is really important, too, imo.
Many artists use their typography for copyright issues, indeed it kills the atmosphere of the picture...
But if the text looks good and doesn't catch your eye too much... then why not?

it's the same with borders btw, everybody thinks borders are a must

LOL,I thought it looked familiar.

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It depends on the type of picture. If the picture depicts a scene, then it shouldn't. If it's a piece for communication purposes, such as an ad or poster, then it should.

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Adding typography is debatable, it depends on what your creating, if it's DESIGN or if it's ART. To simply put it, an artwork normally doesn't need the aid of text, because art is translated to each individual differently & critiqued for its formality of strokes/techniques e.t.c..

A design piece, normally would work well with a simple "TEXT" "SLOGAN" or "TITLE" i'm a freelance graphic designer, and most of the work i do for clients generally involve "typography" in some way or another. Most of the time, i think less = more.

And just as someone wrote above, amateurs will try to add text to AID their work but in actual reality it ruins the artwork.. typography needs to be added correctly with the right colours/shapes/perspective, taken into the same respect as any other element.

I personally use typography, but slowly starting to steer away from it, and using it only when i find it necessary to portray a "CERTAIN" message.

you can take a look at my gallery to see examples:
[link]

hope that helps someone out there for another perspective on typography.

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