MI.GR.ATE

Today we presented our can opener redesign, but not before I had a major meltdown, bawling my eyes out and spilling my grievances to one of the instructors.

Sigh.

That being said, I have since composed myself and am very excited about the next process on visual communication and words!

We have been given a list of words from which we can select one. There's an air of mystery about it; we have a document we're supposed to be printing out, commencing with 2 (3?) pages of the same word repetitively written in black font on white background. Then there are 10 or so pages that are blank, minus a simple square outline in which one can imagine all kinds of letters (it's BLANK SPACE, expensive real estate!), followed by 2-3 pages of the same word again, only this time in white font on a black background.

The first step is to pick our word, look up its definition, and blog about it.

The list of words was, in its majority, very "letter-oriented"; they all could easily stand as adjectives to describe how a font appears. For example, some of the options were compress; condense; constrict; contrast; expand; subtract; etc. Some weren't so clearly "typographic" but could still be seen as expressions of a typeface. I.e. dribble, propel, capture, connect. 

The ones I migrated towards (ahem) were those that seem to have precious little to do with letters and the description of their appearance. To wit, conduct, obtain, transfer, conquer, migration, withdraw.  

Perhaps I was especially attracted to migration and addition since they were the only two words in the entire list that were not verbs or adjectives. Perhaps someone meant to type migrate? Wouldn't that be humorous... a typo in the word around which the project revolves!

mi·gra·tion

1. the process or act of migrating.

2. a migratory movement: preparations for the migration.

3. a number or body of persons or animals migrating  together.

4. Chemistry . a movement or change of position of atoms within a molecule.

5. Physics . diffusion ( def. 3a ) .

To me, that's no true definition, as one cannot honestly define a word with it's root word, without defining that root word. So let me migrate, but before I do, here's a visual for entry #5, diffusion...

alright. Now that we have that straight... 

mi·grate

1. to go from one country, region, or place to another.

2. to pass periodically from one region or climate to another, as certain birds, fishes, and animals: The birds migrate southward in the winter.

3. to shift, as from one system, mode of operation, or enterprise to another.

4. Physiology (of a cell, tissue, etc.) to move from one region of the body to another, as in embryonic development.

5. Chemistry

a. (of ions) to move toward an electrode during electrolysis.

b. (of atoms within a molecule) to change position.

6. (at British universities) to change or transfer from one college to another.

 

 

 

The Online Etymology Dictionary (which is a bookmarked favorite) sites migration as originating from the Latin migratio, from migrare, meaning "to move from one place to another".
It then goes on to say

[migrare] probably originally [came from] *migwros, from PIE *meigw- (cf. Gk. ameibein "to change"), from base *mei- "to change, go, move" (see mutable). That European birds migrate across the seas or to Asia was understood in the Middle Ages, but subsequently forgotten. Dr. Johnson held that swallows slept all winter in the beds of rivers, while the naturalist Morton (1703) stated that they migrated to the moon.