Working in a digital marketing agency means I spend most of my time working in Adobe’s Creative Cloud on my computer. Photoshop in particular is rarely ever closed, and I dread the few minutes of wasted time when I have to wait for the latest update to install. But this need to always be plugged into the cloud does have some benefits; I’m constantly learning new tricks that improve the quality of work and speed up work flow for the entire creative team. There are so many ways to solve creative problems through technology, and with this day-in, day-out use of it, my skills are always improving.
It’s hard for me to say the same for my hand-lettering skills. I admire anyone who can beautifully letter a greeting card or note for a friend in one swift stroke of a pen. It’s a skill I feel often gets tossed to the side in favor of the easier and faster method of opening up Illustrator, picking out a font, outlining it, making a few tweaks to the anchor points, and being done. Though it’s certainly faster, it lacks that quality and emotion only a true hand-lettered piece can contain.
So, to get back in touch with the analog and breathe more life into the work we create, we’re going back to where typography started – a hand and a writing instrument. We’re taking on a 30-day hand-lettering challenge. The challenge is simple: create a letter a day. It doesn’t take too long to sketch a letter, and it doesn’t have to be perfect – that’s the beauty of it. Our goal is to make it through the entire alphabet and a few glyphs by the end of the month, then go from there. Follow our Instagram to see our progress and let us know how you plan to step back from the screen and get inspired.