Quote & Typography Wall Art

A quote print is the only kind of wall art a visitor reads rather than looks at, so choosing one is a question about the sentence, not about the colour. The nineteen prints here are deliberately short — two to six words, mostly — because a long line on a wall gets skimmed once and never again. “Work Hard & Be Nice to People”, “Good Vibes Only”, “Hello Gorgeous”, “Home Sweet Home”, “And the Adventure Begins”, “I Love You to the Moon and Back”.

Some are black ink on plain white, the version that disappears politely into an office or a stairwell. Others set the words over a watercolour ground — a eucalyptus sprig, a mountain range, a brush-stroked sweep, a meadow of wildflowers — and those read as art first and words second. Printed to order on heavy matte paper and shipped unframed, in seven sizes from 5x7 in (12.7 x 17.8 cm) to 16x20 in (40.6 x 50.8 cm). Several are also sold as an instant digital download from about CA$4.50 if you would rather print it yourself.

Typography print or quote print: is there a difference?

Only in what you notice first. Typography prints are about how the letters are drawn, quote prints about what they say, and on a wall they are the same object, so this page holds both. The most purely typographic is “Home”, one word set large in black on white; “Dream Big” is lettering over a single brush stroke; the motivational posters, “Be Who You Are” and “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful”, sit between the two.

How many quote prints should one room have?

One. Two sentences on the same wall argue with each other, and a room full of instructions is tiring to live in. If you want a group, pair one quote print with two wordless prints — a leaf, a shape, a landscape — and let the sentence be the only thing in the set that has to be read.

What size does lettering need?

Larger than you would choose for a picture, because text has to be legible from wherever you stand. At a desk you sit about a metre (3 ft) away, so 8x10 in (20.3 x 25.4 cm) is plenty. In a hallway you pass at 2 to 3 m (7 to 10 ft), where that same print becomes a grey smudge — go to 12x18 in (30.5 x 45.7 cm) or 16x20 in (40.6 x 50.8 cm).

Where do quote prints work badly?

Above a bed, usually. You cannot see it while you are in the bed, and a motivational line is an odd thing to wake up underneath. Desks, entryways, laundry rooms and stairwells all give the words somewhere to do their job.

For the wordless half of a pairing, start with the black and white prints, which hang beside black lettering without a fight. The home office page covers the desk wall these end up on most often, and printable art lists everything available as an instant download.