It's Day 2!! So for today's topic it's all about Creative Process. For my take on today's topic, I thought I would delve into my process for creating hand lettering designs. It seems to be the main thing I get asked about, both by people on Instagram and even in job interviews. So I thought I'd dedicate this post to how I do this, from planning a piece, developing the style then working into it digitally and lastly uploading it to socials! 

Step 1: Planning & Sketching

For me step 1 always involves coming up with what it is I want to create a design about or for. This can vary from lettering things into objects, an editorial design or something else for like a poster or merch. 

Once I've decided or know what it's for I write out the words to get an idea about the letters fit amongst each other and to also quickly experiment with the layout of the letters. From this point I'll start working on a medium sized scale in my leuchtturm1917 (usually about a quarter of the page) to define the letter forms a bit more. From here I will occasionally draw it up bigger if I want to add more flourishes and details at that point or it's onto the digital portion of it!

Step 2: Developing the style & digitising 

When it comes to developing the style, as I said it can be developed while sketching or by doing it on the digital side. More and more lately, with my ProCreate app on my iPad I have been developing the design on that. Using the app it allows me to be more experimental with the styling and it also means I don't have to use lots of tracing or sketching paper in order to work out the best way to represent the phrase, word or editorial use. 

Digitising can some times be the longest part of the process, as I will refine the letters and make the size and shape of the letters concise in relation to each other. Although it is also at this point I can realise that once the forms are worked out the way I want them to be, they might not work for the piece on a whole and so it means I need to re-sketch a new layout. After I've refined the design and perfected the colour palette I then save it.

Step 3: Posting to socials

Making the designs on ProCreate it makes the whole uploading to Instagram simple! There are options to share directly to IG but I prefer to save the image and process video instead. However, the app also makes it super simple to take into Adobe products which is great but hasn't been something I've particularly used so far. 

Is there something I've missed out here that you'd like to know about? Leave any Q's below or feel free to tweet me directly too!

Also sorry for the images being a total mix of designs! I planned to have the one design and show the entire process from start to end but then realised I didn't have videos for the ones that would show the best process! Learn for next time right?

Check out the communities posts:

Danielle Warman (Blooming special) - Working for free

Charlotte Kathleen G
Laura Campbell (The Floral Elephant)

Read my other posts from #CBloggers17

Introduce Yo' Self: Day 1
Facing Imposter Syndrome: Day 3

Want to join in? Get all the details in the link up! blog post.

Helloooo! It’s Day 1 of the #CBloggers17 link up and I am so excited! I’ve participated in link ups and the like with other creatives but never one specifically as part of the #CBloggers community.

So because it’s Day 1, prompts wise I thought what’s better than people sharing introductions about ourselves?

For me I’ve decided to do something that I have wanted to do for a while and I seen loooaaaddddsss of people doing ages ago and that is a lil illustration about me but, as standard, with some typographic bits involved too!

Ironically I uploaded this post late, largely due to the fact that I hadn't planned really much of anything before jetting off to Berlin. But I'm back now so I'll just need to get ahead in the next few days! But also, let that show that if you still want to join in, feel free too! You don't need to let the specifics of the days stop you from joining in. 

Check out the communities posts:

Aumsome Blog

Danielle Warman (Blooming special)

Charlotte Kathleen G
Laura Campbell (The Floral Elephant)

Read my other posts from #CBloggers17
My Hand Lettering Process: Day 2
Facing Imposter Syndrome: Day 3

Want to join in? Get all the details in the link up! blog post.

Hellooooo! I'm doing super great with this more September uploading, aren't I? Anyway, never mind! Today I want to speak about the thing that has actually driven me to wanting to post more in September, which is *drum roll* a #CBloggers link up!!!! 

So the link up officially starts on Friday, the 22nd of September, which means it overlaps the Anniversary date (the 25th, so Day 4) and finishes on the anniversary chat date (the 28th). The link up comes with prompts for each day which would be great to people to use and then some tips and ideas to think about if you're stuck with what to write for that particular prompt. 

And on that note here are the day by day prompts... 

So there's all the prompts. If you fancy getting involved, I'll be sending out emails with each of these graphics so sign up with your details using this google from: Sign Up!

Also I'll say now, you can use these prompts in any way on any media you like! If you want to do it as an Instagram challenge, go for it! If you want to discuss the topics as a YouTube video, awesome! If you want to do a classic blog post, brilliant! Something else, cool! Whatever way you produce and share your content is fine, just make sure you use the #CBloggers17 hashtag so it's easily found as I'll be going back to my own blog posts on each day and linking to everyone who's getting involved! 

And the last thing I wanted to touch on is the graphics themselves! I obviously haven't posted much of anything in regards to the #CBloggers branding but the styling of these graphics are the direction I thought I was going to go in with the identity so I wanted to play around with it just now for the graphics! Let me know what you think of them too. 

But that's all for now! I can't wait to see and read all the posts that come from this!

Oh and let me know if you're getting involved and it would be amazing that if you do get involved that you spread word a bit too! So feel free to save/share the graphics above! 

Hello! Today I have a new review on the blog and as it has been lately, it's gonna get a bit murderous! I've honestly been loving my murder, crime and thriller books this year so I'm just going to keep rolling with it. So today, I have the review of Deadly Burial by Jon Richter...

When DI Chris Sigurdsson is assigned a grisly murder case on remote Salvation

Island, he knows that it might be his strangest yet.

A forgotten wrestling star of the 1980s has been poisoned whilst in the ring, and

amidst the slippery lies of his dangerous opponents, unravelling the victim’s murky

past is almost impossible.

And as a storm threatens to cut Salvation Island off from the mainland, the race is on

for Sigurdsson to find the ruthless killer before he strikes again…

Now getting into this book I had a bit of a tough time but once I picked up the pace with it, especially after I had hit the two-thirds mark I was completely hooked! At the start of the book, it is simply an investigation as to whether a murder has been committed, if it was suicide or an accidental death. But by the end, it's flipped on it's head and it's a full-fledged thriller! I won't lie, I've read quite a few thriller and murder mystery books lately but this one took the cake. 

The book is written in a very quite unique and intriguing style, with chapters alternating between the on-going investigation into Vic Valiant’s death and sharing extracts of Valiant’s own autobiography it gives an interesting perspective into the life he led as a wrestler. It was initially this pull of wrestling that caused me to have a slow start with this book as it's not an area I'm well versed in but Richter's does a tremendous job in being able to pull in a reader who doesn't know about the wrestling world. 

One of the best things about this book is definitely the main characters. As I've said I have read a lot more crime murder/thrillers this year and this book most definitely has the most relatable characters. The only other author/series I can think of that has done as great relatable characters would be Jo Nesbo with his character Harry Hole. But within Deadly Burial, Richter manages to pull the reader in with two characters who are not perfect but are trying their hardest to do the job perfect. With Sigurdsson battling anxiety and panic attacks it hits home a bit but it's because of this that it gives him a more human side. And then with Mason, she is trying to do her best after having her baby and battling post-natal depression, I loved how the issue of depression was explored since it is something many new mothers face. 

For the rest of the book, it's definitely and interesting read and one to pick up if you like your crime thrillers or have an interest in wrestling! As Richer's debut novel it comes as a lovely surprise and I'm excited to see what else comes from him. There's a lot of what happened in this book that makes me feel a sequel will be brilliant as you can learn more about Sigurdsson and his role as a DI! 

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Yep hello, let’s skip the usual formalities of it’s been ages and just jump straight into.

So it’s September! And for this month what I thought might be good for me to do, just to try and get me back into a better writing habit was to challenge myself to consistently upload throughout the month. And the way I’m planning on doing this is to hopefully upload something everyday. Although I know my month is busy with a trip to Berlin so I’m not going to worry too much if i I miss some days but I’d ideally like to at least upload within half of the month.

But yeah, what else? So also to be done along side this blog spree I'll be running a #cbloggers link up too! I'm going to run it from the 22nd to 28th September as it means it ends on the anniversary chat date and I'm not away for the mamas majority of it too. I'll be sharing more details of that next week though, with the topics that & themes so keep an eye out for that!

And then lastly I guess the last thing I have to mention is that I'm going to be opening up freelance graphic design and hand lettering opportunities too! I'm trying to work on more client projects so if you have a blog header needing done, a poster made or some editorial bits for your online or printed mag give me a shout! And I'm also hoping to get some designs and stuff done to sell soon but I think I will be waiting till after Berlin to purchase them as I'd be better to keep cash till after!

Anyway that's all from me just now, I'll catch you in my next post! But let me know what you've been up to in the past few months and feel free to give some suggestions as to what topics/themes I should include in the #Cbloggers link up!