The 100 Day Project: Days 54 – 60

The Great Discontent’s 100 Day Project is now over the hump with only 40 days to go. Created by artist Elle Luna, the goal is to do something creative every day for 100 days that has a specific focus and helps your creative process grow. Projects include photography, video clips, dance, and drawing. I’ve chosen to do 100 days of travel hand lettering. I’m working hard to improve my lettering skills and showcasing my love of travel.

I’m illustrating one place each day, either a place I’ve visited and loved or somewhere that is on my bucket list to visit in the future. This project is more about the process than the end result, and I am definitely seeing my process improve, even in this short amount of time. Plus, it’s helping me develop a good habit of drawing each day—a soothing exercise I desperately need in my chaotic and busy life.

This week, I definitely had less time to work on this project. I did more brush script projects, because those are much faster for me to complete and can be done quickly. Of the brush script designs, I think Austin turned out the best. My overall favorite, and one of my favorites of the entire project, is Capri. I made it look like a handmade tile to reflect the style of southern Italy.

The only disappointment was Chile, on Day 57. I barely got that one completed. We’ve been having epic rain in Colorado, and my sump pump got clogged, so I had to spend Day 57 dealing with that. Chile was a quickie done in a few minutes.

I’m seriously getting tired of the project on one hand, but I’m incredibly proud of the progress I’ve made on the other. I’ve also discovered that with my love of hand lettering, the two styles I’m best at are modern calligraphy and brush script. I’m now taking the time to work on and develop those styles to get to a more professional level. I’m not good at block type, but it’s still fun to practice and use.

Here are days 54–60. Follow the progress on Instagram under the hashtag “#The100DayProject” and my specific hashtag is “#100DaysofTravelLettering” under my Instagram handle, @noeldolangd.

Day 54: St. Petersburg, Russia. I’m dying to visit Russia one day and see the beautiful art, ballet and the palaces.

Day 60: Edinburgh, Scotland
This is one of my favorite cities that I’ve ever visited. It’s full of amazing history, but is really sinister with a prominent role in the great Plague, fascinating ghost tours and haunted castles.

Day 59: Austin, Texas
I don’t have much of a desire to visit Texas, except for Austin. The artist and foodie in me wants to visit this cultural hot spot and check out the SXSW Conference.

Day 58: Capri, Italy
The Isle of Capri is my second favorite spot in all of Italy. It is a stunning place with breathtaking scenery. Southern Italy is full or rich blues, lemons and handmade Mediterranean art. This is my favorite design of the week and one of my top 5 of the project overall.

Day 57: Chile
My least favorite design, which is too bad, because Chile is a beautiful country. It’s on my bucket list of places to visit.

Day 56: Cupertino, California
My inner Apple geek is dying to visit 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, home to Apple computers and the house that Jobs built. I made the “i” the Apple logo.

Day 55: Cannes, France
Home of the film festival, I had an amazing time when I visited this beautiful city on the French Riviera. Stunning scenery, architecture and delicious food, Cannes is a must-see.

100 Day Project: Days 19 – 25

The Great Discontent’s 100 Day Project is now 25% complete. Created by artist Elle Luna, the goal is to do something creative every day for 100 days that has a specific focus and helps your creative process grow. Projects include photography, video clips, dance, and drawing. I’ve chosen to do 100 days of travel hand lettering. I’m working hard to improve my lettering skills and showcasing my love of travel.

I’m illustrating one place each day, either a place I’ve visited and loved or somewhere that is on my bucket list to visit in the future. This project is more about the process than the end result, and I am definitely seeing my process improve, even in this short amount of time. Plus, it’s helping me develop a good habit of drawing each day—a soothing exercise I desperately need in my chaotic and busy life.

This week I dove deeper into try to give my lettering more of a personality by adding illustrations and colors to each place. I started it last week with Thailand and Japan, but tried to stay consistent with it this week other than Rome. Rome didn’t turn out well, which is too bad since I love that city. I was really, really tired that day and not feeling well from my allergies. I completely phoned it in and phoned it in badly. However, this exercise is about the process not the final result. It shows that we designers and artists have good days and bad days and that creativity isn’t something you can turn on just because you have a deadline.

Here are days 19 – 25. Follow the progress on Instagram under the hashtag “#The100DayProject” and my specific hashtag is “#100DaysofTravelLettering” under my Instagram handle, @noeldolangd.

Day 19: Los Angeles
My calligraphy pen doesn’t like the paper I’m using in this notebook, so I had a tough time plugging this one out. I am going to L.A. in October for the AdobeMAX design conference, I can’t wait!

Day 25: Boston
I love Bean Town. I went when I was a kid, but also went back last year for the HOW Design Conference. It is such a hip city, but with amazing history that is still preserved among the modern. As a former distance runner, the marathon holds a special place in my heart.

Day 24: I didn’t do the Eternal City justice with this design. I was trying to channel the carving of the type on Trajan’s column, but it was an epic fail.

Day 23: Egypt
Sigh. Egypt is at the very top of my bucket list. I’ve had 2 very close attempts to visit, but both have fallen through due to state department travel warnings since the revolution. I hope one day to see those amazing pyramids and golden mask of King Tut

Day 22: Tahiti is high on my bucket list of places I want to visit. I did a palm tree to reflect the tropical location and a tiki style font. I chose hot pink for the color to reflect Paul Gaugin’s richly colored paintings of this area.

Day 21: Vienna
I love Vienna, but I’m a huge, huge classical music nerd too. I wanted to incorporate Vienna’s rich musical history into the design, so I added half of a violin and a music staff.

Day 20: Hawaii
I love Hawaii. It really is a beautiful paradise. I’ve been twice, and my favorite is definitely Kauai, because it’s still somewhat untouched by tourism. I channeled the beautiful blue waters of the Pacific and surf shop style typography for this design

100 Day Project: Days 12 – 18

The Great Discontent’s 100 Day Project is going on 3 weeks. Created by artist Elle Luna, the goal is to do something creative every day for 100 days that has a specific focus and helps your creative process grow. Projects include photography, video clips, dance, and drawing. I’ve chosen to do 100 days of travel hand lettering. I’m working hard to improve my lettering skills and showcasing my love of travel.

I’m illustrating one place each day, either a place I’ve visited and loved or somewhere that is on my bucket list to visit in the future. This project is more about the process than the end result, and I am definitely seeing my process improve, even in this short amount of time. Plus, it’s helping me develop a good habit of drawing each day—a soothing exercise I desperately need in my chaotic and busy life.

This past week, I added a new element to my hand lettering: calligraphy. Ever since I started learning lettering, I wanted to learn the copperplate or script style of calligraphy. I love the mix of the delicate thin lines and thick, heavy lines with the variations in the strokes. I went to my local art store and bought a pen. I got an oblique pen, which is definitely odd looking, but it makes writing script much easier. I actually dip it into a bottle of ink, which I shall warn you is a hot mess at times. However, it’s really fun and relaxing. I find that I’m enjoying it more than the other kinds of lettering I’ve tried, and I seem to be getting the hang of it faster. Calligraphy takes years, even decades to master, so I’m nowhere near that, but it’s nice to see some immediate progress.

I’m trying to do calligraphy every other day or every few days with the 100 day project in addition to the regular lettering. Gives it a nice variety.

Here are days 12 – 18. Follow the progress on Instagram under the hashtag “#The100DayProject” and my specific hashtag is “#100DaysofTravelLettering” under my Instagram handle, @noeldolangd.

Day 12: First attempt at the copperplate calligraphy style with Milan, Italy. I haven’t been there yet, but I am planning to go in September when I am going to Italy to attend culinary school in Padua for a week.

Day 13: Athens, Greece
I love Greece. The people are awesome, the history is rich, they have stunning ancient art and great fashion. Athens is a fun city and one of my favorites.

Day 18: Berlin
I haven’t traveled a whole lot through Germany, but I’ve been lucky enough to hit Berlin twice. It is an awesome city. There is so much beautiful art and architecture and a rich history with the Brandenburg Gate, WWII and the years of the Iron Curtain.

Day 17: Santorini, Greece
Santorini is one of my most favorite spots in the entire world. It is breathtakingly beautiful and magical. Some of my fondest memories are from this paradise. Gave calligraphy another shot, though it was an epic fail on the capital “s”

Day 16: Japan
Japan isn’t as high on my list as some spots, but I would like to see Okinawa since that is home to an island of cats AND the highest concentration of centarians. I’d definitely like to know their secret to longevity. I would like to venture into Tokyo to try some outstanding ramen as well. I don’t like to eat sushi, but I find it beautiful, artistically so that was my inspiration for this design.

Day 15: Botswana
I’ve fallen in love with Africa. Kenya is the only place I’ve been to thus far, but Botswana is high on the list to visit sooner rather than later.

Day 14: Thailand
Thailand is high on my bucket list for places to visit in my future. This design is inspired by Thai architecture and colors as well as some elements of the Thai Airlines logo

The 100 Day Project: Days 5 – 11

The Great Discontent’s 100 Day Project is in full swing. Created by artist Elle Luna, the goal is to do something creative every day for 100 days that has a specific focus and helps your creative process grow. Projects include photography, video clips, dance, and drawing. I’ve chosen to do 100 days of travel hand lettering. I’m working hard to improve my lettering skills and showcasing my love of travel.

I’m illustrating one place each day, either a place I’ve visited and loved or somewhere that is on my bucket list to visit in the future. This project is more about the process than the end result, and I am definitely seeing my process improve, even in this short amount of time. Plus, it’s helping me develop a good habit of drawing each day—a soothing exercise I desperately need in my chaotic and busy life.

I really enjoy looking at other people’s projects as well. There are some seriously creative ideas out there, and so far, most people are really encouraging with each other. Follow the progress on Instagram under the hashtag “#The100DayProject” and my specific hashtag is “#100DaysofTravelLettering” under my Instagram handle, @noeldolangd.

Day 5: New York
I love the Big Apple, such an amazing city of culture, art, food and excitement.

Day 6: London
Anther favorite spot on the globe that I’ve visited and loved

Day 7: Madrid is a fantastic city, though I am not pleased with the lettering on this day. I tried to do a brush script style and it came out really flat

Day 8: Warsaw
The capital of Poland and my heritage on my dad’s side. I brought in red to channel the Polish flag

Day 9: Seattle
It’s on my bucket list. As a coffee fanatic, this java city is a must see! It’s supposed to be foam in the coffee mug

Day 10: Dublin
Inspired by the Book of Kells that is in Dublin, I did ornate Celtic / illuminated manuscript style drop cap letters with a few shamrocks

Day 11: Chicago
My kind of town…and the area I grew up in. I really like how the bevels turned out

The 100 Day Project: Days 1- 4

This past Monday began The Great Discontent’s 100 Day Project. The purpose was to do a creative exercise everyday for 100 days. Some people do songs, others do art, photography, make videos. The point behind it was to not focus on the end result, but on the creative process. See what influences you when you’re focused on a single project and watch your improvement.

Since I’m learning hand lettering, I decided to combine that with my immense love of world travel. I am doing 100 days of Travel Lettering (see hashtag #100DaysofTravelLettering on my Instagram account, @noeldolangd). I am drawing the names of countries, cities, states that either I have visited and loved or are on my bucket list as must-sees before I die. The project has to be manageable since it’s so lengthy, and I feel illustrating a single word every day is something I can fit into my busy schedule.

I’m trying to work on the process part and mix styles and try new things. Some days I include a visual that goes with the location (i.e., I did the Golden Gate Bridge for San Francisco and the curved end of a gondola for Venice) and others I just draw the letters (like Morocco). So far, I see my lettering improving a bit, but more importantly, I’m learning that I have time to draw every day. It’s a good creative exercise for me and great for relaxing.

I’m enjoying viewing other participants’ projects as well. There is so much talent and creativity in this world. I like the ones where artists take everyday objects like post-it notes, matchbooks, napkins, etc and make them canvases for their art. They are producing some gorgeous sketches. I love how encouraging it is and that people are taking risks to try new mediums, new processes and share their work out in the open.

It’s not too late to join! Get on Instagram and start following #The100DayProject and my hashtag, #100DaysofTravelLettering.

Day 1: San Francisco
My favorite city in the United States, hands down

Day 4: Venezia (Venice to we crass Americans)
This is one of my absolute favorite places I’ve ever visited. I consider Venice a magical, enchanting place that I love dearly. I made the end of the V look like the curved metal of the gondolas.

Day 3: India
Another place high on my bucket list. I want to see the Taj Mahal so badly and experience the spirituality of the Ghanges. The wildlife lover in me wants to see the beautiful tigers and Asian elephants

Day 2: Morocco
An exotic location high on my bucket list to visit soon. I’m dying to see their beautiful culture and experience the rich, vibrant colors seen in their clothing, ceramic tiles, art, and architecture.

Global Design Spotlight: Berlin, Germany

Back in 2007, when I was a pretty new designer, I took a trip to Berlin, Germany. I’d always been a serious Francophile, but I fell in love with the gorgeous, modern city full of beautiful architecture, design and a great juxtaposition between the old world and modern. Three worlds converged in this European capital: old Germany, Communist Germany and a united Germany. For those interested in design and architecture, I think Berlin is one of the best cities to visit.

The symbol of Berlin is the bear. Long before the cows of Chicago, Berlin started the trend of having bears scattered throughout the city decorated to match the businesses or landmarks they were near.

Pieces of the Berlin Wall remain in tact in Berlin in an area called the East Side Gallery. This is one of the most famous graffiti murals done on the wall. It’s of Russian Communist leader Breshnev embracing the leader of East Germany.

The symbol of Berlin is the bear. Long before the cows of Chicago, Berlin started the trend of having bears scattered throughout the city decorated to match the businesses or landmarks they were near.

The symbol of Berlin is the bear. Long before the cows of Chicago, Berlin started the trend of having bears scattered throughout the city decorated to match the businesses or landmarks they were near.

The symbol of Berlin is the bear. Long before the cows of Chicago, Berlin started the trend of having bears scattered throughout the city decorated to match the businesses or landmarks they were near.

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin a somber experience and beautifully designed. The blocks and roads within the memorial are uneven to represent the fear and unknown of society at the time of Hitler. It also visually looks like a cemetery.

I called this building the Mondrian building. It reminded me of the grids and primary colors of Piet Mondrian’s paintings.

I loved this clever billboard featuring a statue of a man climbing a ladder. No idea what type of company it was for, but it was really neat!

I love the design of European license plates. I love the rectangular shape and the typography.

This scene was striking to me. On the left are the remains of the Communist East Berlin and on the right are the modern innovations of West Berlin. The Berlin Wall used to run down the middle of the street. Although unified, you can still visually see the divisions.

Berlin supports public art and everywhere you go, you will see beautiful sculptures or wall murals.

Berlin city street signs contain beautiful, clean typography.

The symbol of Berlin is the bear. Long before the cows of Chicago, Berlin started the trend of having bears scattered throughout the city decorated to match the businesses or landmarks they were near.

The symbol of Berlin is the bear. Long before the cows of Chicago, Berlin started the trend of having bears scattered throughout the city decorated to match the businesses or landmarks they were near.

The manholes in Berlin are fabulous as they contain the city’s famous landmarks.

Some of the new architecture in Berlin is wildly colored and very bold. I loved this storefront that you could see a million miles away.

At the time, KaDeWe, which is the major department store in Berlin was doing their window displays based off of classic Impressionist paintings. I thought that was a really innovative idea for a new, modern department store.

Global Design Spotlight: Southern Italy

When someone says Italy, your mind immediately jumps to delicious food, ancient ruins, Sophia Loren, Renaissance art and amazing wine. Although it’s not a huge country in terms of land, Italy has immense diversity throughout the different regions, whether it’s cuisine, art, architecture and even the language. As soon as you go south of Rome, there is a real shift from ancient emperors and the Medici family to bright, colorful Mediterranean design.

In 2011, I had the pleasure of going on a cruise to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Israel. Although I’ve been to Italy, I had never been south. We stopped at the Isle of Capri, which is just off the coast near Naples and Sorrento and went all the way down to the picturesque town of Taormina on the island of Sicily. It was absolutely stunning. Everything looked like it was a living postcard. They were full of rich, vibrant colors, beautiful ceramic pottery with ornate patterns, imagery of citrus fruits and lush flowers.

There is a real pride in things that are handmade in Italy. You won’t see a lot of commercial, plastic signs or billboards. The beautiful architecture and remains of history are well preserved and loved. Every town is unique and reflects this rich culture.

I’m always fascinated by the streetlights when I travel abroad. It seems like such a simple, utilitarian thing, but they are always intricately beautiful, especially in Italy. This light reminded me of Venice, Italy’s lights, but this was in Taormina, Sicily.

I love the pretty handmade signs that hang at the top of the stairs. Each alley in Taormina, Sicily is unique.

Global Design Spotlight: Paris

I am a serious Francophile. Ever since I was a little, little girl, I’ve been in love with all things French and completely obsessed with Paris. I remember seeing a picture of the Eiffel Tower when I was 4 or 5 and deciding right then and there that Paris was my favorite city, even thought I hadn’t been to it yet. Fast forward to when I visited the first time at age 16, and my fantasy became a reality. I fell crazy in love with the City of Lights, and it was everything I had imagined it would be and more.

I think part of what made me feel so at home in Paris right away was that although everything was quite foreign to me, it felt familiar. The street signs, the metro signs, the lettering on the cafes, menus, etc all had a strong familiarity to it. It was if I knew exactly what those things would look like. Paris has such an established culture that seeps into their design that it makes tourists familiar with their city. We come to expect the art nouveau red lettered metro signs. We expect cafes to use art deco style fonts in their signage. It is a design culture that doesn’t change much over the years.

Small Bites: February 9, 2015

It’s another Manic Monday…wish it were Sunday…Okay, readers, let’s kick off the week with some inspiring design news with these creative small bites. Enjoy!

Designer, Mehmet Gozetlik, is creating a new project, Chinatown. He is making neon signs, like you’d see on the side of a Chinese restaurant, using U.S. company logos and translating them into Chinese. Although they are in a different language and medium than what we’re used to seeing, the brands are still pretty recognizable. But, his project brings up an interesting question: do we need to start designing our logos with the world in mind as we continue to expand?

Print is not dead. Granted, designers have been championing that since the dawn of the digital age, but Print Magazine (yes, I see the irony!) released an interesting article on why print and digital can work together to make a brand stronger.

Fashionistas and we ladies in our 30s will enjoy this lovely infographic shared by Design Taxi this week. It features the most iconic shoes of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, one of my favorite TV shows ever.

Geek out designers, here are are the world’s most famous works of art made out of Pantone chips. Enjoy!

Awesome video with a powerful ending on “What is branding?” It has great motion graphics and really helps define branding from the creative side as more than just a hot marketing buzzword.

And finally, a great blog post about nothing to do with design. World traveler Gary Arndt has spent the last 3 years traveling the globe. In this blog post, he shares the 20 things he’s learned. To me, travel is an essential part of being a designer in that we need the world and other cultures to inspire us. Read his list, get your passport and go!

Word of the Year: January Recap

This is a quote I designed using the calligraphy font, Isabella.

As the final week of January begins, I’m at a point of reflection for how my first month went with my “word of the year” concept. I decided that 2015 was going to be the year of Learning. My goals are to learn jQuery and WordPress, improve my HTML and CSS and learn hand lettering.

So far, it’s been going really well. I completed 3 full courses on Code Academy on jQuery and interactive websites. This past week, I started learning WordPress. I’ve been doing hand lettering nearly every day.

This past weekend, I was going to work more on WordPress, and I was trying to do lessons with Treehouse, but I was getting nowhere. I absolutely did not understand the concept. I know everyone says it’s so easy, and it probably is, but I was not getting it.

I had a complete block to everything Treehouse was trying to explain to me. Everything I tried wasn’t working, and it seemed completely counter-intuitive. I decided to take a step back and work on something fun. I was so driven to reach my goal that I zapped myself.