Developing my style
hand lettering chocolate bar wrap Sabeth Elberse studio 2024
As a designer I want to learn more and more, to keep up, to learn new techniques, to speed up a design process or just a new challenge. As a self-employed person who mainly works alone, and therefore often has to come up with ideas, it is nice to take lessons with others and receive/give feedback or to simply receive an assignment and create new work.
Papercut lessons
I recently started taking paper cutting lessons. You probably know that the basis of most of my designs is cutting, but I do it by feeling. The imperfect line and shape appeals to me so much. And yet taking lessons with other enthusiasts is very educational. You do something together with other creative people and by learning more about scissors, folding techniques and basic elements, I grow enormously. Even a difficult assignment that I don't really feel like doing is a fun challenge and provides new insights. There is growth there, just outside your comfort zone. You often hear and read that, of course, but when you experience it yourself it is really very interesting. I'm just getting better at what I do by pushing the boundaries a little bit every time.
Handlettering
I have also been following Lilla Rorgers' ecourse, the bootcamp series of her Make art that sells website, for years. Lilla Rogers is an illustrator and agent and has a very nice way of teaching. She gives fun and market-oriented assignments that you can put in your portfolio and show to customers. My style really developed by taking these courses and my love for paper cutting also comes from an assignment I had to make a few years ago. These courses also taught me to break an assignment into small pieces so that I don't become overwhelmed. She gives 1 assignment per month. This starts with a mini, a drawing exercise, without knowing what the end goal will be. It can be an illustration for an editorial (magazine illustration), a book cover, a pattern for fabric or wall art. But this year is all about hand lettering.
Now I'm not very good at hand lettering, so that's a challenge. I often use the same font. I may have designed it myself by cutting the letters, but taking it to the next level would be fun.
The first assignment is done and I really enjoy doing it. I was a bit surprised about that. You learn to look carefully by drawing a lot and hand lettering is actually just drawing letters. As a result, it is actually not that complicated at all. Especially if I accept that I have somewhat messy handwriting. Not all letters are the same size or thickness, but that doesn't really matter.
For the first hand lettering assignment I was allowed to design chocolate bars. Super cool, right? I chose to make them in my cut out style and some of the letters are also cut, but most of the letters are drawn. Hand lettering is a nice addition to my style and I am once again challenged to take a step beyond my comfort zone.
