LETTERING + GRAPHIC
DESIGN LEARNING
I am truly so flattered by the response to Lettering Layouts this week (it’s the #1 trending class on Skillshare as I type this!). I have loved, LOVED seeing everyone’s experiments they’ve shared either by tagging me on instagram or posting in the class. So much talent! To say a giant thank you, I wanted to share a little something extra to inspire any new layouts you may have up your sleeves: a hand lettering style inspiration guide!
This coming Monday, I’ll be publishing my next Skillshare class, Lettering Layouts. Since we went over typing on a path in Illustrator on Tuesday, I thought it’d be fun to mix the concept of custom baselines with purely typographic layouts. The results are pretty incredible and can for sure seem intimidating to try yourself. This week, on top of a roundup of 6 stunning typographic layouts, I’m breaking each layout down. By doing this, it’s far easier to see how each layout was achieved and how you can begin incorporating similar methods, techniques and design elements into your own layouts moving forward. If you’ll be joining me in Monday’s class, this post is a big head start. Read on for more!
Let’s talk about something that’s massively important, but often gets overlooked: type on a path in Illustrator. You’re probably already familiar with the ability to select any text and go effect > warp, but that makes editing your text later on pretty difficult. The truth is, most of graphic design is experimenting, altering and adjusting. Because of this, the need to go back and adjust previously warped text quickly is a big deal. Luckily, Illustrator makes it super easy to customize text appearance along a path with a few handy tools. Prepare to take your layouts to a whole new level with these options in this week’s tutorial! Oh, and just in case you need to reference these tips later, I made you a free cheat sheet, too 😉
A brand style guide template… When I worked at a design studio, we called this the ‘systems page’ for each brand’s identity standards. We also called all of the graphic elements the brand’s VIS, or visual identity system. I’ve seen (online, anyway), it’s commonly referred to as a brand style guide, so we’re using that for this post. (Feel free to use your favorite term, they’re all relevant. 🙂 )
A brand style guide is basically this: a brand board template of all visual elements (including primary logo/ secondary logo) that comprise a brand’s unique presence and aesthetic to the public. It’s what makes a brand get noticed, helps them to stand apart from their competitors, and creates the feeling(s) they wish to communicate visually. If/when you’re tasked with creating a brand’s identity, this page will be handed as branding template to all other designers to use that ever work on the brand. It’s a series of branding templates & guide to keep a brand’s look – colors, fonts, patterns, etc. consistent across all applications.
So yep, pretty handy little template to have 🙂
Happy Thursday! To celebrate the launch of Mastering Mockups this week, I thought I’d throw in another little extra bonus (did you catch the free lesson from the class in Tuesday’s video?). If you like putting your calligraphy or artwork on stationery, this week’s freebie was made just for you! With just a couple of clicks (full written step-by-step on using the file below!), you can place your artwork on this greeting card, just like in the preview image, in less than a minute! Use this for your own product sell pages or social media posts to get your work noticed quickly – grab the file below!
It’s been a little while since I shared a freebie texture, so today I’m sharing some ink textures! I started using these rolled ink textures in my artwork a while ago, the most recent example being this one to show off Tuesday Script. I’ve even masked these into typography using the same method as watercolor typography for some really nice textured type results. If nothing else, they are sooooo fun to play around with and add that little extra handmade feel to any kind of artwork. The best part? Every texture comes as a vector ai file for versions of Illustrator, CS3 or newer PLUS every texture comes as a transparent png, so it’s cake to use with any other kind of software 😉 Preview images + download link below!
I experiment with new materials and supplies constantly for my (traditional) hand lettering. I would actually be scared to know how much time I’ve spent eyeing different hand lettering supplies (and reading their reviews) over on Amazon. I’ve invested in a lot of new ones this year and currently I have 5 favorites that I find myself always returning to and reordering. If you’re just starting out with lettering, or if you’re on the hunt for some new supplies but would like to read a real (almost every day) user review, here are my current top 5 favorite hand lettering supplies (totally unbiased, with no affiliation to any of em) 🙂
In my newest Skillshare class, Intro to iPad Lettering, we start lettering on the iPad using some guide sheets to get comfortable writing on a tablet vs. paper. If you’re on your way to iPad lettering, guide sheets are wonderful tools. Practicing on paper before making the leap allows a more seamless transition when you’re ready. To help the transition along, this week’s freebie is a set of printable hand lettering guide sheets to improve consistency with uniform letters.
To finish up Photoshop month, this week I wanted to share one of my favorite ways to work with watercolors in Photoshop – turning them into seamless texture patterns! If you’ve taken my Watercolor Textures for Graphic Design class over on Skillshare, this week’s tutorial will be a refresher for you, but I’m also sharing how to take the pattern you create and convert it into an Illustrator pattern swatch (check out around 8:20 for that), so there’s something new for everyone 🙂 My newest watercolor texture kit (vol. 3) just went live today, so I’m excited to share textures from the new kit throughout the video – these are my most detailed and colorful ones to date! Click below to get yo’ pattern on!
In this past Tuesday’s tutorial, we walked through how quick and easy it is to create your own tshirt mockup in Photoshop. Sometimes time can get pretty short, though, and if you’re in a pinch for a nice mockup, luckily there are a bunch of apparel mockup resources peppered into the internet 🙂 This week I’m sharing a roundup of 5 free apparel mockups – (yep, free!) so you can get your mockup on in no time. Extra bonus: many of these sites have plenty of other kinds of mockups, too! Links and preview images below! 👇
One of the most common types of Photoshop mockups is apparel mockups – most specifically, tshirts. And it makes sense – there are plenty of cool tshirt companies out there who need to quickly show their designs off in a consistent fashion, and photographing each shirt when there are dozens can be very time consuming. Enter the tshirt mockup – one photoshop file that allows you to change the design of the tshirt in just a couple of quick clicks. Setting up the file is actually much simpler than you might think, and in this week’s tutorial, we set one up, step by step in just a few minutes. See the full method of creating your own Photoshop tshirt mockup below!
In Full Time Graphic Design, we go over how a self promotion (a small sendable/gift or leave behind to briefly show the quality and style of your work) can take you far with influencing a potential employer to set up an interview or even get you hired. When I started my very first job out of college, on my very first day of work, the COO stopped by my desk, complimented my work and said he still had the promo I handed them at the job fair I attended months earlier (you can see the self promo I made in this video). So yea, definitely a powerful tool if you can fit it into your budget!
If creating a self promo is something you’re interested in, this week I wanted to share 5 unique and inspiring self promos that all work in different ways to get a designer’s style, skills and personality across quickly to the right person. Along with each piece, I’ve also included a tip to help your own self promos along. See them all below and click on any image to be brought to its source!
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