27 Things I've Learned That Can Be Applied To Hand Lettering.

In honor of my birthday (this past Monday, June 15), I decided to make and share a list of valuable things I've learned this year that can also be applied to hand lettering. 

27. Choose happiness and joy. Though things may not go well or as planned each and everyday choose to be happy and choose joy over sadness. Life's too short.

26. Get organized. Being organized is a skill, one that many people don't have. When you learn to be organized you can create systems that will help you get through your activities. 

25. Surround yourself around the people you want to influence you. Want to get in shape? Find some fitness friends. Want to be a better hand letterer? Subscribe to those artists and connect with them, find someone in your local area. You are influenced by your top five friends. 

24. Make genuine connections. The term "network" has been over used and beaten to the ground, and with social media like Linkedin saying, " Please add me to your network" it just screams I'm looking to connect so I can get something in return - though I may not really know you. Genuine connections will take you farther and you'll build lasting relationships with people around the world. 

23. Get out the house. Find some local meetups and see what people are doing. Go to a conference and listen to a speaker, in the same or different field. It will influence you, and you'll learn something new.  

22. Read more. When I was younger I used to compete with a classmate to see how many books we could read in a week. We were in fifth or sixth grade, and each week we would check in to see how many books the other person read. Some how she managed to increase her reading speed. When I think about it now she probably learned how to skim/scan the pages of a book really quickly at a young age, it now comes in handy and I can skim pages and articles quicker.

21. Find an accountability partner or group. I have a few of them. One for financial, one for fitness and one for getting up early to write. It's so much easier to disappoint ourselves but when you have someone else in your corner cheering you on and motivating you to keep going, you'll more than likely try even harder not to disappoint them.

20. Write, Everyday. One of the accountability groups is based on EWDW. #6amclub (really the #5amclub on the east coast) but we've created a group to get everyone on board and everyone just messages in - feet on the floor. Which means, " I've gotten out of bed, I am ready to write". I use my writings for blog posts, reflection and relief.

“How to apply this to hand lettering: choose your quotes, messages or phrase you wish to hand letter in advance. Maybe seven for the week, and practice one each day.
”

— Donia

19. Reserve time for the things you enjoy. Family, fitness, fun, your passion! Everyone has 24 hours in a day and we all choose how to spend them differently. Set aside time to practice your hand lettering put it in the calendar so that you don't derail from it.

18. Be a professional and learn more about professionalism. Everything from the way you talk, walk present and the way you write - choose to be a professional. It will give you greater return in so many ways.

17. Get focused. Remove the distractions, put your phone on airplane mode, turn your wifi off and take some time for yourself. Thinking, reading, gaining knowledge, understanding your purpose or the reason you are choosing to do something - like lettering, will help you get focused on the steps to reaching your goals. Besides, unless you have stock in Facebook or work for them, why are you spending so much time on there?

16. Rest. overworking yourself will only increase your stress and anxiety. Work hard and rest harder.  

15. Research. I've been learning so much about marketing, ways to improve my writing, communication and simply putting myself out there. I am sure there is another artist of African American descent that can relate to me and my struggles. Perhaps I can learn from someone else or someone can learn from me. 

14. Learn the rules. Rules aren't everything and many people don't like them. Some people like to break them and others are ignorant of them. Rules exist and you need to know them - especially to avoid trouble. 

13. Listen to your intuition. Anytime I've had a gut feeling and not listen to it, I always regret it later. I sometimes say to myself, '" if you listened to that feeling in your gut you wouldn't be here," or " you know you saw that one coming". That inner voice we have can save us from so many problems. I am so happy when I do listen to that intuition. You might be surprised what you'll gain if you listen to that inner voice sometime. 

12. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Humility is a great character to have and asking for help can be a very humbling experience. Though at times we can do it all on our own, we can save time, money and resources by simply asking for help. 

11. Know Why. "Because I felt like it," is such a cowardly answer to give. Dig deeper and know the reasons you believe in something. Learn to form your own opinions and be sure you are confident, firm, in your beliefs. Though your reasons, and or theory might change - at least have something more than, "because I felt like it," to back it up. 

10. Be Confident. I know you don't just wake up and decide to be confident, but I do believe there are steps you can take to get you to that place of being confident. 

9. Curiosity is one of the best ways to learn. You have a keen interest in learning something and you'll better retain the information. Stay curious and you'll learn more outside the classroom. 

8. Gratitude. Showing others how thankful you are, that you appreciate them can make their day. Be grateful and show gratitude. 

7. Learn how to Learn. This is deep. When learning something new we are excited and want to jump through the steps. But when learning to learn, we should take our time to absorb the information. 

6. Critics exist. They're either saying good things about you or they are saying ba thing about you. Either way, they exist. 

5. Sharing is caring. (Just not germs). When sharing your work, you put yourself up for criticism. Learn to not take things personally, learn to be objective, sharing your experiences will help someone else in the long run.

4. Practice. Practice, practice. Practice makes perfect. Though we still try to achieve perfection, practice will build any and every skill and can surpass talent if one is willing. 

3. Curate. Choose one thing and focus on that. Get really good at it, then you can find other ways to be creative. Just be sure to curate, then branch out from there. 

2. Knowledge is powerful. Share what you know, and people will thank you for it.

1. Start before you're ready. Even though when you start things may - and more likely not be perfect, you will still have some place to look back at how far you've come. 

What are some things you've learned? 

The Primary Basics: Typography and Hand Lettering

I must admit that I was not ready for todays blog post. I wanted to write about the anatomy of type, have a full page illustration on it, my own diagram - it all sounded great in my head, until I began to put my pencil to paper. All that I wanted to share with you, can not be executed in the time I allotted myself. Instead, I have decided to share with you the very basics and I have a free gift for you that can be downloaded for your use as you get started in your journey to hand lettering. I am showing up today, to give you the very primary basics before we even enter the anatomy of type. We can call this the primary basics to typography and hand-lettering.

Before I start let me share a story with you:

Remember when we were in elementary school, learning how to write? We were given these really large lined papers, and sometimes the paper had dotted lines that created our alphabets. We were supposed to trace those lines and report back to the teacher and show our squiggly had writing skills. Tracing those dotted lines allowed us to build muscle memory while practicing our hand writing. Over time we learned to create words, phrases and so fourth.

Todays we are covering the base lines that are encountered when practicing hand lettering. You can think of these lines as guides, and while I am providing a template for you, feel free to learn how to create your own so that you are not limited by tools.

Here's are some questions to think of:

Do you know what your letters sit on? A base Line. Do You know what the X-Height is? The Cap Height? Is the Ascender above or below the CapHeight? Where does the descender fit in all of this?

While our elementary lined paper kept it basic with three lines, one of them being dotted lines, we are covering six lines.

Ascender: An upward vertical stroke found on the part of lowercase letters that extends above the typeface’s x-height.

Cap Height: A line marking the height of uppercase letters within a font.

x-Height: The height of lowercase letters reach based on height of lowercase x; does not include ascenders or descenders.

Mean Line: Imaginary line running along the top of non-ascending, lowercase letters. The mean-line falls at the top of many lowercase letters such as “e,” “g” and “y

Base Line: The invisible line where all characters sit.

Descender: The invisible line marking the lowest point of the descenders within a font.

That's it for our lesson today! Download the free page template so you can get started on practicing your lettering.

Have more questions? Subscribe and send your questions to me about the anatomy of type. I look forward to hearing from you.

Biggest Lesson I Learned This Week

Tuesday of last week, January 27th we were hit with a snow storm that caused a travel ban across several states - New Jersey was one of them. I share with you my thoughts that happened on Tuesday morning:

Though I am the only one in the office right now - and usually I am the first, today its different. I woke up around 6 am naturally this morning and completed my EWDW. (Early Wake Daily Write). I then proceeded to go back to sleep. I was under the impression that I would have a snow day today from work. Boy was I wrong. By 7 am I didn't get a message from my supervisor so I sent one out to him asking if the office was closed. "Since the travel ban was lifted, the office is now open". It made me think why did I automatically assume that since the weather was bad, I could stay home! If I were a doctor, I would still be expected to come in, I'd probably be expected to work over time because other people would call out. Had I started my day, regardless of the weather I would have been at work maybe by 8 on the dot, and maybe by 7:30 the earliest due to the weather. This makes me think about what I would do or what I would have done if it were my business. I think its good that my supervisor told me to come in. The parkway was very clear but the main roads, not so much. I also had every intention to go to the gym today and now I have no excuse since I am out of the house and at work. Also since I am at work, by 5 pm I am sure the roads should be even better and I will be headed to the gym.

I could understand if I had other obligations that would prevent me from going in. It's different say if one chooses to work from home in bad weather, though they may not be fully present, I am sure some work could be done. There may be distractions and one may not work to their full potential. There are other cases too. Say there's only one parent and the child's school or daycare center is closed, if the roads are bad I wouldn't risk bringing little Sally Walker to work with me. Since I am hourly I have to make up my hours. I was sure to be early yesterday and definitely hit the gym in the morning and not in the evening when the storm was passing through.

The conclusion to this is if I were an employer and if I were not ready to go out, I wouldn't ask my employees to go out either. If it's dangerous out, definitely give my employees a day off. Otherwise, if it's just bad weather but not harmful, get your asses down here! (If you have the option to work remotely, do so!)

Have you had any experiences that you've learned from that you intend to apply?