Verb List

Serra Verb List

Above: Richard Serra, “Verb List Compilation: Actions to Relate to Oneself,” (1967–1968).

Serra’s list inspired me to make one of my own, which is drawn from some of the peculiarities of a designer’s particular lexicon.

to underline
to embolden
to slant
to strike
to footnote
to cap
to indent
to justify
to center
to rag
to flatten
to bring forward
to send back
to layer
to lift
to use
to distribute
to post
to collect
to index
to separate
to delimit
to compress
to embed
to head
to slug
to space
to set
to align
to format
to tag
to link
to float
to anchor
to overprint
to double-hit
to laminate
to spot
to specify
to frame
to force
to group
to lock
to copy
to animate
to warp
to wipe
to scroll
to fade
to bind
to fold
to wrap
to mark
to tip
to saturate
to contrast
to sharpen
to posterize
to bitmap
to blur
to render
to outline
to clone
to undo
to fill
to batch
to scale
to default
to baseline
to sketch
to comp
to greek
to dummy
to style
to hyphenate
to runaround
to lay out
to paste up
to sequence
to flow
to append
to print
to constrain
to coincide
to bump
to stamp
to emboss
to laminate
to deckle
to collage
to multiply
to drop
to tear
to break