How to Make an Eye Chart with your Children’s Names!

It was while Spiderman was at Ocean Optometry, having some tests done on his night vision…alright, whatever, he had “eyeball pain” and it needed to be investigated…ANYWAY…

It was while we were at the eye doctor that I took a good look at the eye chart…trying to “read” it…find words in there…discover a little hidden meaning behind it all.

AND…Nothing!

Later that night…I thought it would be fun to make my own…using my children’s names…to create a fun piece of “art” to hang on the wall and next thing you know…I was making more pieces…and more…looking up “How to create a Gallery Wall” on Pinterest and deciding on a few things I’d like to have on mine!

After a bit of fun and design…I sent it all off to the printers and yesterday, after a client gave me a Winners Gift Card as a “Thank You” for a bit of work I’ve done lately…I immediately headed out to grab some frames and pick up my printing in HOPES that things turned out like I’d envisioned.

Which, as a graphic designer, after you make something and send it to the printer…the THRILL is picking it up so you can decide if you actually know what you’re doing or not!

YAYYYY for me! I loved all of the pieces so CLEARLY…I know what I’m doing!

Ish.

Anyway, I don’t quite have time at the moment to put every piece together and hang them all on the wall above the couch in the family room and shop for all of the accompanying fun pieces that I want hanging in amongst the frames (anyone know where I can get a black or white ceramic moose head)…but, for now, here are a few pieces that I just couldn’t wait to show (and didn’t involve a whack of work to make it happen).

(Note: The “Whatever You Do Make Sure It Makes You Happy” print isn’t one of mine…I bought it and hung it in my office a few weeks ago because the thing is…when I’m creating…I’m unbelievably ecstatic!)

All will be hung and the “Gallery Wall” will be revealed in a blog post at a later date as soon as I have a little break in my schedule. For now, shown in the photos is the “Optical Chart” with my children’s names, the “16” piece…because both Bones and Spiderman wear the #16 on their jerseys in their respective sports, and the “I Love You to the Moon…but not back” piece…because…well…that’s a story for another day…

To make the Optical Chart:

1. Start with an 11×17 document (I used Adobe Illustrator but you could use a different program.)
2. I used Helvetic Font…because I like the clean look I was going for. If you want it to be more like the original Snellen Chart, you might want to use a Slab font…such as Rockwell.
3. Start with your first letter…for me, I was lucky I could use the E as on most eye charts. Again, Snellen Charts typically start with E, N or H…but if your child’s name starts with something different…use that letter…or change their name…up to you!
4. For the first line, I used a 288pt font…each line, I decreased by about half until the very last line was a 10pt font and really hard to read. (Not that I don’t love my youngest daughter as much as the other two…but of course the middle child had to point that out…because that’s what middle children do!)
5. Center all of the text.
6. Make sure the leading is the same distance between each line (the space between each row).
7. Fix the kerning on the letters to spread the letters out as they get smaller. (Kerning is the spacing between each letter.) For reference, the kerning on the last row of my piece is 5,000pt!
8. Print and Frame and VOILA!

Also…if you’re a complete typography geek like me and want to find out all about the history of the eye chart and the fonts used to make them…here’s a great article!

Also…they “eyeball pain”…turns out Spidey was lacking in a little eye fluid…Ocean Optometry fixed him right up! Oh…and if you can’t tell what my youngest’s name is…give them a call. They’ll fix you up too!