Spring Signage Ideas and Layout Planning Video

00:00:00 - Intro

In this video, I have 11 quotes about spring that I'm going to breakdown and figure out the general layout as if I were making a sign out of all of them. Originally, I planned to make mini videos for all of these signs throughout the spring (that is the spring of '23 -- which is over now). So, the new plan is to have these all done by next spring instead. Once they are done, they will be listed under this lesson on teachable as well. I also mention the Spring Window Mural that I was making at the time. That video did eventually come out on my channel - though not when I originally wanted it to. Here it is if you're interested: Spring Window Mural.

00:06:44 - Quote Breakdowns

1.) April Showers bring May Flowers

One big thing about this quote is that "showers" rhymes with "flowers" so that is something I'm definitely going to highlight when I do the lettering for this quote.

There's also a nice rhythm to this quote. April and May are used as adjectives, or descriptive word modifiers, in this quote - plus they are also both months, so there is a connection between the two of them too. So you end up with something like:

[Monthly adjective] [Rhyme Word 1] [Small Center Word] [Monthly Adjective] [Rhyme Word 2]

OR

April Showers bring May Flowers

So. when I think about how I'm going to do the line breaks in my quote, I know that "bring" is sort of the outlier. It is a small word in this case, and the least significant word in the quote. So, it's going to go one of two ways. Either:

April Showers | bring | May Flowers

OR

April | Showers | bring | May | Flowers

This can depend on the shape of the sign that I'm putting it on. If it will be oriented horizontally with the width being longer than the height, the first option would probably be better (not necessarily, but probably). And if it has more of a vertical orientation with the height being longer than the width, the second option would be the better choice (again, not necessarily)

As I said earlier, "bring" is the smaller insignificant word in this quote, so when I do the lettering, it's going to be smaller and more plain compared to the other words.

This is one of the quotes that I start brainstorming designs with at the end of the video.

2.) Do your thing, Spring!

Again, we have some rhyming words, but this time they aren't symmetrical in rhythm. For this one, my brain went right to a vertical alignment like this:

Do

Your

Thing

Spring

One of the things that's nice about this is the words all get a little bigger as you go down the quote. So, the shape is kind of triangular (assuming you decide to give it all a center alignment.

Another option I explored was this:

Do Your

Thing

Spring

And another option was:

Do Your Thing

SPRING

This last option would be best with a horizontally oriented sign.

3.) Grow through what you go through

In this one, "through" and "through" not only rhyme but they are the exact same word (if you hadn't noticed :D ), but "grow" and "go" rhyme as well. This one is kind of similar to the first quote "April Showers bring May Flowers", but "april" and "may" don't rhyme. Also there is a slightly different rhythm to it as well. There are 6 total words with 2 smaller words in the middle. So, the line breaks can go a few different ways here:

Grow through | what you | go through

OR

Grow through | what | you | go through

OR

Grow | through | what | you | go | through

OR

Grow | through | what you | go | through

In the video, I only mention the first two options, but looking back on it now I can see the other two being a possibility as well.

4.) Plant your seeds, pull out the weeds, and grow yourself a beautiful life

This one is much longer and therefore more challenging. But, there are natural breaks in the sentence where the commas are. So, the line breaks in that case would look like this:

Plant your seeds | pull out the weeds | and | grow yourself a beautiful life

Another option I considered in the video was:

Plant your seeds | pull out the weeds | and | grow yourself | a beautiful life

I could also further break these down, again, this depends on the shape of the signage that I'm making in the end too.

Another thing to note here is that "seeds" and "weeds" rhyme so there is a connection there.

5.) Honeybees and flowers, please

This one has some similarities with #1 and #2 above. The rhythm and rhyming is similar to #1, and grammatically, the structure of the quote itself is similar to #2 with the single word on the end separated by a comma.

Honeybees is spelled as one word, but I could split it up using some "artistic license".

"Bees" rhymes with "please", but they don't have the same role in the sentence. Bees is a noun (flowers is the other one that the conjunction "and" is connecting), and "please" is an interjection in this sentence (which is why it has a comma before it). So bees and please are connected because they rhyme, but bees and flowers are also connected because of "and".

As far as line breaks, you could do:

Honey | Bees | and | Flowers | Please

OR

Honey Bees | and | Flowers Please

Because of the grammatical structure, I think the first option is the right one because it's the only way to get a nice symmetry to this quote. It always looks "off" otherwise.

6.) Hey there, bud, how's it growin'?

First of all, I would keep the question mark as part of the quote on the sign.

There are no rhyming words in this quote and nothing that is grammatically linked in any way.

Through the natural rhythm, the words "bud" and "growin'?" are the main stars of the show here so they would be the ones I would emphasize on the sign.

For the line breaks, you can do:

Hey there | bud | how's it | growin'?

OR

Hey | there | bud | how's | it | growin'?

No preference at this time about which one is better.

7.) Live your life in full bloom

Again, there isn't much going on here for symmetry. None of the words rhyme. Nothing is really connected. "In full bloom" is a prepositional phrase so it naturally goes together, but it could be split up too.

In the video, I had these two as options:

Live

Your

Life

In

Full

Bloom

OR

Live

Your

Life

In

Full Bloom

But another option could be:

Live your Life

in Full Bloom

Again, this would work very well on a horizontally oriented sign.

8.) Stop and Smell the Flowers

No rhyming with this one, but there is a rhythm. "And" and "the" are the two small words in this quote and the rest are more important by default.

So the rhythm looks something like this: ______ ^ _______ ^ ______

As I said in the video, "Stop" is naturally a word that is typically on its own -- especially if it's the start of a sentence and used as an interjection. If you think of the song lyrics "Stop! in the name of love" or "Stop! collaborate, and listen" or "Stop! Hammer Time" or "Stop! for a minute" there's always a pause and even if it isn't written this way, there seems to be an exclamation point after "stop". I mean, "stop" means "stop!" right? You can think of a crossing guard holding up a stop sign in every one of those quotes to grab your attention, make you pause, and then direct you to the rest of the sentence.

In my mind, the only option for this one is to separate all the words:

Stop | and | Smell | the | Flowers

The other two options I talked about in the video aren't really feasible (possibly the second one if you were doing a horizontal sign). That would go:

Stop

and

Smell the Flowers

In that case, I would make Stop much larger to balance out the top.

9.) Spring is here! I'm so excited I wet my plants!

This is a very long quote so doing it vertically would be a challenge. Those options are:

Spring | is | here | I'm | so | excited | I | wet | my | plants

OR

Spring is here | I'm so excited | I wet my plants

The second option would work horizontally as well. Another option for that is:

Spring is here | I'm so excited I wet my plants

And as I said in the video, I would probably make "Spring is here" much larger than the rest to balance it out, but it depends on if I was going to draw anything else on the sign other than lettering.

10.) I'm sorry for the things i said when it was winter

In this quote, there are no rhymes or connections of any kind and there isn't really much of a rhythm either.

Here are the ways I broke it down in the video:

I'm sorry for | the things I said | when it was winter

I'm sorry | for the things | I said when | it was winter

Looking back on this I thought of another option:

I'm sorry | for the things | I said | when it was winter

which I think is slightly less awkward than the second option above.

11.) Dear winter, I'm breaking up with you. Spring is better. He gives me flowers.

First of all, since this one is written like a letter, you could do this kind of "on the nose" and format it like a letter (which I didn't do in the video)

Dear winter,

I'm breaking up with you. Spring

is better. He gives me flowers.

But if you didn't want to do that, you could break it up like I did in the video:

Dear winter | I'm breaking up with you | Spring is better | He gives me flowers

OR

Dear winter | I'm breaking up | with you | Spring is | better | He gives me | Flowers

For the rest of the video, I did three preliminary sketches of these signs just to show you the next step after breaking down a quote.

Once the mini videos are done when I make all the signs, they will be listed below.