Wordplay

It is strange how we live in an age of such incredible technology (literally- I have no idea how it is all possible) and yet we have not lost our passion for the hand crafted and hand written.  We still want a good pen. We still doodle, note and list. If anything the Internet has helped spread the word (sorry, couldn't help myself). There are so many great artists and small companies out there creating beautiful work using hand writing.

Now I know I'm a little behind the curve on this, chiefly because I really don't hold with all those daft 'inspirational' quotations around (don't say quote it is wrong), so up until now I have chosen to ignore this trend.

Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by the number and complexity of type out there in the world. All that leading and kerning, serifs and slabs. I've dabbled. I made the lettering for my new logo, and here are some experiments from when I studied graphic design.

Then the other day I watched a great talk  Nate Williams did for Offset (If you haven't seen it I recommend it). He talks about how the economic downturn forced him to look for work other than editorial, and how he got into licensing through creating hand lettering. He is dyslexic, so to him letters were odd shapes, which freed him up to play and not feel constricted by it.

I'd been scribbling furiously through this lecture and when he spoke about this it was like a little light bulb moment, and I found myself  not writing but drawing letters and words. Once you stop worrying (my default disposition about most things) about what a letter is supposed to look like it all becomes a lot of fun. So I have a few ideas I'm playing around with for some wordy patterns. I'll share them with you soon.

Here's some inspiration in the mean time. I've put the links at the bottom, but you can see them all, and more, on my pinterest pages

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