I don't know about you but I love making patterns, but I've always had a hard time figuring the repeat out. Here's a great tutorial that works in every edition of illustrator.
I've got a new icon up on the Noun Project. They've been (and still are!) such a great resource for so many designers over the years, it's fun to feel like I can contribute a bit. Check them out here! thenounproject.com
This week's theme was odd celebrations. Who knew there was a "Lumpy Rug day"? Who knew we needed one?
Why yes! There are 9 days in this week, because I got overexcited last week and started on Sunday and there's an extra.
The apology: We couldn't invite some guys to the party I was having because I found out they might turn into bears.
Nobody wants party bears. Poor, lonely party bears.
In other news, I also bought a parallel pen, which is used for calligraphy, I used it on the "Super Sock man" Superhero Celebration day.
Editor's note: All of these photos were taken under EXTREMELY POOR LIGHTING CONDITIONS. I should switch my times around so I can get decent photos in the morning.
Experimenting with Blackletter and an angry back incident made for a bit of a midweek slump. Ow. Still loving 3D Thursday though. Felt a bit better after that.
Also jumped the gun on the next week and celebrated national pretzel day too early. Should have had a "Something Sunday…" So here's a chubby pretzel!
This was the first week I gave myself a theme: Food. Pretty happy with how things are turning out. I'll get last week's up eventually…
Note: all of these were taken with iphone5 camera, with pretty much the worst lighting possible. I find myself doing them at night in front of whatever TV show we're watching, lately a lot of Bob's Burgers.
I came to realize after the first week of lettering quotes that if this is going to be sustainable. I'm going to need some themes. I roughed out the next 5 weeks or so, and it feels good to have something to bounce ideas off of instead of the million-and-one things that are never good enough to write, or depending on things I'm watching in the evening to provide me with a good quote or word.
Last night we watched The Babadook, which was beautiful, the art direction and color palettes were amazing.
Hello to all three or four of you that are reading this!
So I've made it through 3 days so far, I might as well announce that I'm doing the 100days project.
What Is the 100-Day Project? It’s a celebration of process that encourages everyone to participate in 100 days of making. The great surrender is the process; showing up day after day is the goal. For the 100-Day Project, it’s not about fetishizing finished products—it’s about the process.
The action I decided upon is to create some loopy, goofy, playful (and probably pretty bad) handlettering. You'll find it on instagram under the hashtag #badhandlettering My goal is to just make a bunch of it and hopefully get to #okhandlettering and then to #prettygoodhandlettering. My inspiration will come from things I overhear, funny conversations and the occasional internet troll.
I promise absolutely nothing profound, no RUMI quotes or Ben Franklin platitudes unless they're 100% made up.
It's probably going to be mostly badly photocopied fart jokes TBH.
Chillin' at the beach down at club Med… Ok, actually just work–busy, so things have been a bit Instagram-focused lately. I'm starting a couple of new projects that I'll try to share bits of process as I go.
Here's a very recent collaboration (Yes, that's me!) with wonderful photographer Jeremy Pair jeremypair.com to get a little more personality onto the site here. I have a really fun set that I'll be using for the new header as soon as I pull them together and–I'm looking forward to more collaborating with Jeremy in the near future.
Last year I had a fun quick-turn project, some party planning, some design, a great silly questionnaire and some goofy illustrations to go with. Here's a couple of my faves.
Riding the line between sloppy and tight, I'm getting to the point where I like all the little mistakes. That little "killer" is making me pretty happy.
I've been making tons of icons lately. Here's a favourite. It's so satisfying to create a set of rules and then see how far I can stretch them and have the set still visually work together.
I bought some brushes and presets from Kyle Webster. The screentone brushes alone are fantastic. Been really enjoying playing around with them, just abstract tests are a lot of fun. I love the watercolor paper texture so much I'm going to make everyone sick of it.
Finishing up a little portfolio site for writer and journalist Ruchi Shah. We did a quick photoshoot with Ankhar on my kitchen table with my Great Grandmother's typewriter. I think it came out beautifully. Simple and clean! Check it out here.
Mookda is such a cutie! Working on a personality-filled brochure for a friend's hand-harvested salt company. So nice to have such a lovely and authentic story to work with, a 4th generation family-owned small business in Thailand.
I've been working with it for a couple of weeks now and it is lovely. So much more intuitive and cleaner than 6 and the interface is fantastic. Here's a quick snippet of a website I've been working on for a client.
If you need insurance and live in the PNW, Cheron is wonderful BTW. CheronCalder.com
