New in Portfolio: A Party without Cake is really just a Meeting
Oh boy, it took me a while to create a lettering piece inspired by Julia Child's quote, which I absolutely adore: “A party without cake is really just a meeting.”
Oh boy, it took me a while to create a lettering piece inspired by Julia Child's quote, which I absolutely adore: “A party without cake is really just a meeting.” The main challenge was to find a good place for the two articles before the words “party” and “meeting.” After trying different layouts and styles, I decided to keep them pretty clean and place them directly before the words. Such a layout creates a nice repetition which is reinforced by the similar swashes on the letter t (the word “party”) and the letter g (the “meeting”). Right now the final composition looks quite balanced, but I still want to keep some of my early sketches just in case I decide to come back and redraw the whole piece again in the future. Who knows, maybe after a while I’ll get some inspiration from those early ideas.
Here is the final work in color:
Patterns on Products: The Swimwear by The Call of Summer
As a pattern designer, I am always thrilled to see how my work is going to look on real life products. I am even more excited when it resonates with the brand’s voice. Recently I received some styled shoots from The Call of Summer, an online brand making gorgeous swimwear for women.
As a pattern designer, I am always thrilled to see how my work is going to look on real life products. I am even more excited when it resonates with the brand’s voice. Recently I received some styled shoots from The Call of Summer, an online brand making gorgeous swimwear for women. I am so on board with their belief that the true beauty is all about being authentic and imperfect. When I design patterns, my hands get dirty, and the floor around my table is covered with dozens of pieces of paper. My design process is definitely imperfect. Would I create the same stuff if I strived to keep everything nice and clean? I don’t think so. Would I find some nice pattern ideas while being afraid of ink splashes on my table? Probably not. Imperfections are a part of our lives, that’s what makes us unique. I hope that my messy pattern supports and reinforces the idea of being authentic and embracing your personality. If you want to learn more about The Call of Summer, check out their website or Instagram page. And don't forget to play more & worry less!
All photos were kindly provided by The Call of Summer.
What's Next
The beginning of the year started with some noticeable changes. I hope those changes are for the best, but I still need some time to accept them and adjust accordingly.
The beginning of the year started with some noticeable changes. I hope those changes are for the best, but I still need some time to accept them and adjust accordingly. Without going into details, let’s say I’m faced with the need to put some parts of my life on pause, and wait for a while for those changes to happen. To be honest, the time is my biggest concern. Waiting is hard for me. It’s especially hard since I feel that I’m constantly being late with all the important stuff like learning to walk as a child or realizing what I really want to do with my life (career-wise). Everything happens… late. I’ve already spent almost ten years going into one direction. Then I changed that direction to a completely new one, building everything from scratch. It took me some time to get on a new path. It feels that I’m already late. Can everything be delayed even more? Would it be too late or just late if I wait a little bit more? Maybe it’s time to learn my own biggest lesson in patience. Moving forward is not possible without truly accepting my time, my speed, and my path. Maybe there's another way to look at things. Imagine a passenger who was running to catch the train, but only gets to the station to see that the train has already gone. And the station is empty. And the wind is blowing. And it’s the sunset. And everything seems missed forever. Right now I feel like I am at this station catching this train (this is how late I feel). But here the magic happens. Am I going to wait for the next train? Hell no! I don’t need the next train or the train at all. I’m building a rocket.
New Product: Christmas Overlays
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Brigitte Tohm | Source: unsplash.com
Drawing something festive for winter holidays has always been a fun and exciting activity for me, so over time I've gathered a decent collection of Christmas lettering designs. Even though it's a little bit late to release a new Christmas-related product, I still decided to share this collection with you. This lettering bundle contains phrases, quotes, and sayings in three different languages: English, French, and Russian (all designs are available in vector format). Most of the time white overlays are the best on pictures, so for every lettering piece I've created a white PNG file with a transparent background. This will make the editing process much faster and easier for you. If you have any quote or phrase suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below or contact me directly by email. I would be glad to update my collection and make it even better. Stay warm and don't forget to enjoy the season!
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Jakob Owens | Source: unsplash.com
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Todd Diemer | Source: unsplash.com
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Christine Makhlouf | Source: unsplash.com
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: IB Wira Dyatmika | Source: unsplash.com
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Joanna Kosinska | Source: unsplash.com
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Ian Schneider | Source: unsplash.com
A collection of Christmas Overlays with lettering designs by Type and Graphics Lab | https://crmrkt.com/OMQk8
Photo credit: Ian Schneider | Source: unsplash.com
100 Days of Lettering: Part 10
The last part of the lettering challenge. Finally!
I can’t believe that today is the last day of my lettering project. In the middle of the challenge I had an impression that it would never end. Looking back now I realize that it was actually very fast and even not enough to find my favorite style, technique or media. Drawing letters for 3+ months is almost nothing if you think about your whole life. It’s like a tiny little step towards new adventures and discoveries. The good thing is that the end of the project is not the end at all, but rather a beginning. I will try to maintain my habit of drawing letters every day and post new projects as often as possible. Now I'm going to make myself a cup of coffee and enjoy the moment of glory ;)
Thanks for watching!
Other parts:
100 Days of Lettering: Part 9
Rediscovering pencils.
One of the best things that happened during my lettering challenge is that I started drawing a lot with pencils. For a long time, I avoided using this basic tool and preferred working with ink instead. The idea of smashing a pencil sketch with my hand and ruin the whole piece always terrified me. When it comes to working with ink, I pay much more attention to keeping my hands out of the freshly painted area. Most of the time my hand and the ink do not interfere, so there is no mess. Working with pencils was more challenging. I had to be careful with my hands when going back and forth over the drawing. Recently I found a few tricks that help me to keep the pencil sketches clean:
1. Go from light to dark.
I usually start my sketch with a hard pencil such as F or HB, which gives a light line. It allows me to work all over my sketch without any fear to make it messy with my hand. Also, light sketches are easy to correct with an eraser.
2. Use a protective layer of paper.
Sometimes I put a piece of paper on top of the pencil sketch to protect it from my hand movements. This trick works pretty well, although it demands an extra attention each time when moving the protective layer of paper to cover a new area of the sketch. I always check the paper’s “down” side that was in contact with my drawing to make sure it has no traces of pencil. If it’s dirty, I use a new clean piece of paper.
3. Redraw the final work.
Nothing works better than redrawing the final work. When all the details are placed in place, I put a new piece of paper over my sketch and redraw everything. This process is clean since I move my hand from top left to bottom right of my drawing without going back and forth.
That’s all for today. If you have other tips and tricks on how to keep a pencil drawing clean, I would be glad to hear them from you. Also stay tuned for the last part of my lettering project!
100 Days of Lettering: Part 8
During the last ten days I spent a good amount of time working on a single piece — “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
I immediately fell in love with this quote by Woody Allen, since it sounds like a perfect motivational poster for any creative person. It took me approximately 10 hours to finish this piece from the first sketch to the final vector work. I still see few places where I would add more details, but for the purpose of this project I will keep it as it is for the moment. The rest of the work is the usual brush lettering.
Russian word “Dream” | typeandgraphicslab.com
