This is a Round 2 for a book cover design I did for my hand lettering class. If you haven’t read this book, it’s really amazing – warning: It’s a tear-jerker. A saga of generations of sisters and lots of drama, mystery, love and an amazing plot.
Anyways, what do you think of the lettering? Do you understand the concept I was going for? Is it legible to you? And most importantly, do you buy a book by its cover – and would you buy this one? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!
Here’s the poster of the sketch I did of this Adele quote. We had to make it 13×19 for class, but I might resize to 8.5×11 so I can make prints. I love this quote – and I’d love it on my wall to remind me to put my all into everything. It’s easy to get lazy with design, or lazy to create – but even if it’s something you don’t think you’ll be able to use for your portfolio, make it into something that you can. This is how I would apply it to graphic design jobs, but it can apply to really anything in your life. Find a door and throw yourself through it!
I have a really hard time naming things. I can be creative with colors, patterns, what a cat would look like on a starry night cloud.. but naming what I create is another challenge for me.
Have you ever bought something because of it’s name? I want to buy all of Tim Holtz’s distress inks because of their names – and just to have more inks – but he’s really good at choosing perfect names that make you want to buy ALL of his products – or maybe that’s just me.
Vintage Photo
Here’s his “Vintage Photo” ink. Perfect right? Some of my other favorites are: Broken China, Frayed Burlap, Rusty Hinge, Tumbled Glass, Crushed Olive and Spun Sugar. A definite picture comes to mind, and also a feeling, a smell, a thought. There’s one called Pumice Stone – I immediately picture a nice soft, gritty gray.. and I want to paint with it.
In another example, Etsy had written about a shop that displayed their necklaces really well and had a good, cohesive branding. I thought of it when I started writing this post. Of course I couldn’t remember the name of the shop, but I had remembered that the jewelry designer had named their necklace “Pink Lemonade” and the colors were inspired by pink lemonade and I thought it was so cool to 1. be inspired by color in that way and 2. use as a naming tool. So I searched etsy for “Lemonade Necklace” because that’s all I could remember and I found it!
Pink lemonade necklace by Cookoorikoo
It’s actually not as uncommon as I thought and there were a ton of pink lemonade necklaces, but this one actually said it on the image and I had remembered that as well – it helps that the necklace is really cute too. What an awesome way to brand yourself. Check out this shop here.
I’m attempting to name some new fabric envelopes that my mom made. There’s pretty purple ones, blue, green, wacky abstract patterns.. they’re really great. I hope the names that I pick do them justice. The one at the top of this post is my favorite of this batch – what name comes to mind?
I love this quote by Adele. I’m taking a hand lettering class with Bonnie Clas and our first assignment is to create a 13×19 poster of a lyric.
This was more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I’m used to writing tops 3-4 words.. Thank you, Happy Birthday, Happy Wedding, etc. Trying to figure out what to do with the last 3 words (Every Open Door) and drawing at this size was a challenge.
This is my second attempt. Actually, here’s the first:
The critique on this was.. the swirls were too much a part of the lettering and the lettering needed more room to breathe. Adele would sue me if her name was that small haha. The Y still looked capital, sometimes I colored the inside of the letters (called counters) and sometimes I didn’t.. I wasn’t happy with every word after “Soul.” Plus, I wanted something heavier – more about SOUL and about hurling yourself into open doorways.
I’ll post the colored second version tomorrow. In the meantime, find an open door, and jump in with all of your heart and creativity.
Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband of one year and counting!
July 2, 2011
This is a hand-lettering design I made for him – since he’s in Utah right now and I can’t see him, I spent Sunday making this. I think I do my best work making things for other people..
What would you take care of if you had a whole week to catch up on life?
I’m taking a vacation in Utah with my husband and he’ll be on a math retreat (yes, doing math problems) for most of the time during the week. I’m so excited to have a whole week to figure out what to do with myself – this is rare. If I’m on vacation, I’m usually planning activities and trying to see everything – this time, I’m going to catch up on business to do’s, relax, do some yoga, draw until the sun sets..
Here’s a short to do list I have when I have no plans: (that might be a contradiction)
1. Catch up on Cynla business – this is actually a longer sublist I won’t bore you with..
2. Go through my huge inbox of emails that stresses me out everyday
3. Draw once a day at least (maybe I’ll post them)
4. Do some hand-lettering: I’m taking a hand-lettering and typography class with Bonnie Clas.
5. Yoga in a crater/hot spring
6. Get a mani/pedi
7. Maybe take a hot air balloon honeymoon adventure
8. Stroll down main street in Park City and visit shops
9. Read
10. Sit outside as much as possible
This sounds amazing right now, and I get to live it next week : ) Super excited.
I recently read a post about the perfect morning at my friend Dorkys’s blog Dry as Toast titled, “What successful people do in the morning.” One of the points was, “Picture your perfect morning,” and I had to share this.
My typical morning is sleeping until the last possible minute then running around like a maniac. I just never thought of devoting time to actually picturing my perfect morning and making it happen. After I wake up, my brain power is usually spent worrying about what I have to do that day and trying to see what I can squish in.
Many people always complain about not having enough time and hours in the day — but if you want that perfect morning, or if you want to spend time drawing each day – find the time. Stop checking email non-stop (Cindy) and instead all of those minutes will magically add up. Get up 10 minutes earlier and enjoy your coffee on the deck. Take 5 minutes of your lunch break to walk around the block. Too much of my life is spent trying to catch up with myself instead of enjoying and appreciating things.
What would you do if you had the time? (And then make the time.)
I went to the Reasons to be Creative Conference last week, and was motivated and inspired by some crazy, wonderful designers and developers. There were speakers at the conference who were coders, installation artists, game developers.. so some of the projects were a little over my head – being primarily a flat, 2D print designer. Their work seems close to magical to me when I don’t know how in the world they created it — but being amazed is an awesome, inspiring feeling. I want to be amazed every day.
The first speaker of the first day was Zach Lieberman – an artist and teacher at Parson’s. He shared a project he worked on with Tempt1 (Tony) – a graffiti artist who developed ALS in 2003 and is almost completely paralyzed. Zach created the eyewriter which tracks eye movement and allows ALS patients to draw with their eyes! See the video.
Tempt’s drawings were projected onto buildings and the feed was brought back into the hospital room for Tempt to see. He typed that it was a breath of fresh air to be able to create something after 7 years…
Zach wanted to make this technology affordable and this headset costs $50 and can be hooked up to a computer. He made the software free as well. Before this development, Tempt used a very limited (and expensive) typing mechanism that he controlled with his eyes. Instead of waiting for the government to decide to invest money into researching this, an artist created a solution.
I don’t even know what to say about all this – I’m just inspired. Inspired to keep creating while I can, inspired to make things to help people appreciate their lives and possibly get involved to do some life-changing work. Maybe I’ll take a programming class and create unimaginable stuff. I know I’ll always keep taking classes and going to events like this to be involved in a creative community and learn from others who are doing unbelievable things.
Furthermore, I just found a kickstarter project where they raised money for Tempt to pay for his hospital bills. He created a whole set of new artwork in the process and a robotic arm drew his designs. If you haven’t heard of kickstarter yet, check out their project here and definitely browse some of the other amazing things that people are getting started.
Hope this project added a little inspiration to your day.
~ Cindy
Images from Zach Lieberman’s website.
Here’s the cat card card as promised. I love what happened when I flipped it. When I was tracing it, I tried to flip it and make the pieces fall into place on the other side so nothing would overlap and look odd.
I’m not sure I’m completely happy with the coloring. I had a comment that I should make the colors more bold. I’ll see how that goes.
The cats in the middle weren’t in the sketch, but I wanted them to interlock tails. Our cats do this, but it’s more like they’re flipped around and attacking each other’s tails. Maybe one day when they grow up, they’ll just friendly interlock, right?
Speaking of kittens, we’re getting our cats spayed & neutered in 2 weeks. I’m really nervous about it and am afraid they’re going to hate me. Some people said they’ll be different kittens. Let’s hope they’ll like to be pet and held after this. If I draw more happy cat cards, maybe they’ll get the message. [I promise every post from here on out will not be about my cats! But I’m sure they’ll make it into a couple.]
Here’s a sketch I did for a “cat card” card. The kitten is surrounded by all of his favorite things. We recently got 2 kittens! They are adorable and curious all of the time. Always watching things.. followed by sniffing and pawing. This card is the watching stage. I gave them an ice cube this morning and it was a huge deal – trying to figure out how to get that into a card, it was too funny. They didn’t know whether to attack it or lick it. Once it was melted, they searched the entire kitchen – poor cats.
Here’s the inked version and what it will potentially look like once I flip it. Cool? I’m going to do a whole series, maybe a whole deck, but that’s a little ambitious. The next one will be bunnies of course. Stay tuned for the finished version of this cat card.
Oh Calvin. You’re so determined and optimistic. Sound familiar? It does to me!
I’d like to think that if I make a lot of great cards, and keep designing, the orders will just start pouring in. Marketing and business is the hard part for me – or maybe just the scary part. I’m hoping to just get “discovered.” Or I don’t put my cards out there because everything isn’t perfect yet, and I need this done, and this perfected, and this many designs.. so I wait. Against a tree. With whatever I’m doing to procrastinate that day. I read a ton of business books and blogs to “get ready” and then just add to a giant list of stuff to do.
So, inspired by this Calvin & Hobbes cartoon (and a bunch of other signs), I’m going to make more efforts to get out there. I’m going to start tackling that list of companies I want to pitch to. I’m going to start crossing things off the giant To Do list! Start doing and stop making more lists. Day by day. I’ll keep you updated.
Have you ever been scared of your To Do list so much that it prevents you from completing anything?
Calvin & Hobbes – great cartoon – is from gocomics.
Just bought the last of the Year of the Dragon Stamps at Grand Central – sorry! It’s such a pretty design and I tried to buy them at the beginning of the year and they were sold out. But now that I located a picture of it, I found out you can order them online here.
What do you think of the Chinese one and North Korean ones below?
The Chinese one has caused some debate. The creator had meant it to represent a confident China, while some believe it looks scary. “While the Chinese view the dragon as an auspicious and graceful creature, the West has historically depicted dragons as threatening beasts.” Read the full article here.
I like the North Korean ones, but really love all 3 designs. I might have to start collecting stamps. Or at least Lunar New Year animal ones! Here’s a link to Year of the Dragon stamps around the world via vietnamstamp.net.
Using these stamps to send out Mother’s Day cards! Still time to get yours in our Etsy shop.
Mother’s day is almost here! Check out our new Mother’s day cards. Order before Friday to definitely get them by Mother’s day (May 13th!)
For full messages, see descriptions in our Cynla etsy shop. All three cards are available to give to all the moms you know.
In a blog post by Handmade Success (a good handmade business blog), Kerry mentioned ways to de-stress. One of them included some easy bedtime yoga that you can do right on your bed to help you get to sleep. I’m definitely going to try it. I’ve heard that a good stretch can be equivalent to hours of sleep. I should be doing a lot more stretching.
A lot of my cards have a no-stress theme. I’d like to build on this. I don’t have any yoga cards [yet] but above is one of my stressed out bears – Unplug. He’s tangled up in all of his gadgets and wondering how he got this far. Trying to relax is one of my constant struggles, especially living in a fast-pace city where everyone seems to be rushing. Maybe I’ll make Fridays the days where I post about ways to de-stress.
I’ve been thinking about how to really focus this blog and I go back and forth between making it a graphic design lifestyle blog (which is what it has been so far), a strictly cards and illustration site, or to do something ambitious to really get some designs out of me and get a good following of people. This would be something like 365 flower designs, or a card-a-day type of thing. It would be a lot of work, but it would really get me drawing I think. Right now I have more time to design, but once my business gets going, and the orders start pouring in (just putting it out there), then I might not have as much time to fit drawing into every day.
I guess I should cross that bridge when I get there and not worry so much – I just wouldn’t want to start a project I couldn’t finish. Do you have any ideas like this where thinking about how much time it’ll take is holding you back?
I’m in the middle of creating a new card line – My Favorite Things. Everyone has their own set of favorite things, and sometimes these come in odd combinations.. but I think people can relate to having their own preferred favorite items and finding a comfort in them. Wouldn’t it be a less stressful life to surround yourself with all of your favorite things all the time?
Here are some of my ideas for a “My Favorite Things” card line, inspired by my favorite things:
Travel
Drawing
Hot Sauce
Chocolate covered strawberries
Books
Snorkeling
Music / Dancing
Ice Cream
Dumplings.. Mmmm
Iced Coffee – I can’t see one or even write the words without wanting one..
I could probably sit here all day, but what are some of your favorite things? Favorite flowers? Favorite animals? Comfort foods? I need some very specific items. The more specific and weird the better! You can reply to this if you’re getting this post by email, or leave suggestions in the comments on the blog. Thanks!
For example, cupcakes and Paris, collecting shells in clear jars, or even Hello Kitty cheetos (see above). The above images are from a quick search on Pinterest – my new favorite social media. These are images that were labeled “My Favorite things” by different people.
Image credits:
Paris necklace by PenelopesPorch’s Etsy shop pinned by Laine Sefick http://www.etsy.com/transaction/60250499
My favorite things poster posted by ayumi from http://color-crazed.tumblr.com/post/19704688535/g-rass-333-chinupbuttercu-p
Elephants uploaded by Kayla Christine
Brownies from kumquatblog.com pinned by MariAnne
Shell collections from cottagesandbungalowsmag.com pinned by Kathy Montminy Mensalvas
Cat on chevron pinned by Desiree Jacobs
Hello kitty cheetos pinned by melissa salinas from kittyhell.com
Book planter pinned by Jessica Dittrich from petiteplanet.blogspot.com
Here’s a preview of a design I’m working on – that I formatted to be my facebook page’s cover photo – it will be more vertical on the card, but I do like this way too. I’m thinking of making long prints with sayings on them.. Relax, Breathe, Get Inspired, etc. Maybe I’ll have to add this to the mix. Do you have a spot in your home for long framed art? Or wood-backed? I’m still deciding how I’m going to execute all of these designs that I’m creating.
Also, my husband did this great flipbook project with his math class teaching them translations, tessalations, rotation.. all that fun geometry stuff. The flipbooks are so creative and it makes me want to animate some of my art. He’s going to post one a day. We videotaped the flipping – check them out on Robert T. LaColla’s blog or click on the photo above. This one is of a person flipping along what looks like some monkey bars. Very cool.
Happy day after Earth day! I’ve been looking into recycled paper options and found a printer that prints on Bamboo – Tree-free Paper! I’m excited to get some samples and to start creating prints of my art on this great-for-the-environment paper. Why is bamboo paper better than recycled stocks?
Bamboo is a quickly renewable resource. Bamboo is the single fastest growing species of plant on the planet with some species growing more than a meter a day. In sharp contrast to trees which require decades to recover from harvesting, bamboo reaches maturity in 3 to 5 years or less and when it is cut, the stem is left in the soil to sprout a new shoot and start the growing process again. [Source: Bamboostock.com]
Also, the bamboo paper is recyclable, just like regular paper. Look for bamboo prints next month! I’m printing about 10 designs to start. If you like any of Cynla’s cards that you want to see in a print form, that you don’t see here, let me know! I’ll consider adding it to the very first batch of prints!
Print designs that will be offered soon: [based on popularity!]
NYC, Brooklyn, Morning Glory, Clouds, Starry-eyed Animals, and possibly the Music design.
Above is my bamboo design card – it would be great to rerun this on the bamboo paper. It would be great to offer all my designs on the bamboo paper, unfortunately, not as cost effective. We have to support recycled options and sustainable papers in order for it to become more in demand and bring the prices down so small shops like me can afford to print on them! : ) The Bamboo card (not yet on bamboo paper, sorry) is available in my Etsy shop.
Happy Friday! I decided to make Fridays the day when I post custom work I’ve done: logos, flyers, invites, etc. It’s a fresh break from my normal routine of creating for a market because it’s fulfilling a specific client vision. Always an adventure.
This was a baby shower invitation I did for my lovely neighbor’s sister [personal info has been blurred]. I asked if they had a theme for the shower or any colors they liked and this is the general information I received, “Since it’s a co-ed shower, the husband suggested Steelers. The wife said ok, but then the mom/future grandma said NO. The mom said, ‘well, maybe we can put a football on it.. no, that’s stupid.”
So a lot of direction and not much direction at the same time – my favorite. I came up with this teddy bear in a crib design – Steelers jersey, mobile with a football on it to please everyone. It went over well and my neighbor said everyone at the shower was talking about it. yay!
Even though women are my main target market in the card world, I find myself trying to use neutral colors and not to be too “girly” and pink in my work. I don’t know if it’s because men don’t usually browse cards, but I find a lot of men liking my designs. I’d like to appeal to both markets. If you have any ideas on this, please feel free to share in the comments.
I took a Design Procedures class this fall at SVA (which has amazing continuing education courses by the way) and did this project. The assignment was to redo a New York Times Magazine layout. I picked an article about the Ocarina – which is an app for the iPhone that you can literally blow into your phone and “play” your iPhone like a recorder almost. Technology is amazing. The article had some good photos, but I thought it needed a cool illustration – hence all the music coming out of the iPhone.
That led to this card below and the pattern above. I’d like to pitch a couple companies to use this design on iPhone and iPad skins. Can you see this pattern on any other products?
New cards available in our Cynla Etsy shop! A land of ice cream where all your cares melt away, Happy Birthday in blues for all of your happy birthday blues, and some Japanese lanterns in red and blue for brightening someone’s day. The puns I know.. I think it comes with the greeting card job, but hopefully you’ll remember them and buy next time you are looking for a particular theme that I have made. We’re always updating the shop so stop by often! Thanks for your support. Click on an image to be taken to that listing in our shop.
This hasn’t been made into a card yet, but I can’t wait to share it. It’s Manhattan! To go in my city series (see Brooklyn here). Included are taxis, street blocks, signs, lots of buildings, empire state, subway trains, fire escapes, and a little twin towers hidden in the soon to be Freedom tower. There’s a lot that I couldn’t fit in, so I hope it still looks like New York City without a lot of the major landmarks – Times Square, Guggenheim – one of my favorite places, the library lions, even the Statue of Liberty. I may make a follow up one to this to cover some more of them.. because you can never have too many cards! What kind of things would you like to see in a New York card?
about me
Hi! Thanks for visiting. Drawing and creating has become a way for me to de-stress. I'd like to do it more often. This is a space for me to share my art and inspiration, my card designs, and to remind myself to stress less.
My card business and moving outside of NYC [gasp] is a new adventure in my life and I'm happy to be able to share it with you. Feel free to drop me an email cindy [ at ] cynla.com, leave a comment or two, or visit my website (www.cynla.com) and shop (cynla.etsy.com).
Happy de-stressing!
~ Cindy
