With Mother’s Day less than two weeks away, I thought it would be a nice little treat to share a part of what I’m sending along to my mom this Mother’s day. Her favorite colors are pink and green, so as an ode to her, I lettered and created this Mother’s Day printable card and envelope template for all to enjoy. The card ends up a cute little 3″ x 3″ piece that you can use to send some love. Best of all, both the card and envelope print on one 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper, so all you have to do is print, fold, tape up, and send! Simple? Simple.

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE HERE

I picked up this scoring board a couple months ago, and it has seriously been a life-saver for all kinds of crafts lately. It just takes everything you fold, and gives it that professional touch. I suggest you get one for your design arsenal—this is the one I use. Scoring is seriously addicting, hah.

Next, fold up the envelope and tape it up. You could also use a sticker, or any kind of glue on the inside. I just have a washi tape fetish, so, you know. Also—the template that you print is not distressed like this. For some reason the paper I used for this was not a great match for my printer/ink, and as I handled the card and envelope, it started to wear off and give it this distressed look. I kind of liked it, so I just went with it. Just a note that yours might not have that same quality.

Et voila! Use your prettiest handwriting to write the address, slap on a cute stamp, and you’re ready to send!

Happy early mother’s day to all you wonderful ladies — you too mom, duh! Love you :)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and get to enjoy something that this month of May deserves. A Barbeque perhaps? I’ve been experimenting with oven-made ribs lately. I’m such a wuss when it comes to grills, hah.

I just realized that I haven’t shown much of my work around these parts lately! While I’ve been updating my portfolio for my job search—and that seriously needs a re-haul as far as content management goes, I hear cargo is great any other suggestions??—I haven’t had the chance to share the final products of my journey. So no better day than today, right?

Now that this finals week is around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to share a project that I finished last quarter as a concept for Verily Magazine. I met with one of the co-founders, Kara, and we discussed different topics for a social awareness campaign that could align itself with the principles that Verily aims to uphold. We decided to tackle the cult of perfection, and how when women read many female-oriented magazines, they sometimes feel a little less than perfect after they’re finished. Verily aims to have women feel good about themselves after they read the magazine and give women the motivation and encouragement to be the best version of themselves.

I decided to create a hand lettered quote that I used throughout the campaign on postcards, keychains, subways signs, and even in an installation piece. The installation piece is a prototype that has the quote spun on spindles, in front of a mirror. By having the quote in both black and white, you can interact with the quote, and look at your own reflection in the mirror. It’s a hope, but my concept was that when the installation was in use, the viewer could reflect upon their own image and the positive and negative aspects that they see in themselves. I know we all don’t think positively about our own self image all the time, nor do I think we think negatively. The purpose of this project was to allow women the time and the place to reflect upon this, and try to find their inner beauty for themselves. My hopes would be that this could be placed in a public space on a larger scale, so we’ll see how this ends up!

Along with the installation, I mocked up promotional material that could be integrated with the campaign to spread the work about Verily.

I hope you enjoyed this little look into my work and process behind the design. In other news regarding Verily, word on the street is that they are hiring! If you’re a web designer looking for an internship, or a graphic designer looking for some freelance work, head on over and see if you’re up for what it takes to work alongside these wonderful ladies. I know I’ve come across some crazy talented new friends who leave comments and little notes around here, so I’m looking at you! Applications are due by March 10th, and time is ticking. Oh, and if you want a look at a couple more images from the campaign, you can head over to my portfolio.

I was a complete spaz the other day and forgot to add this on to my Valentine’s DIY project! So, for this bright and sunny—in Savannah—Friday, I’d love to extend this little gift to you: downloadable valentines day desktop and iPhone wallpaper!

So were you one of the readers who saw the valentines post and you were all: yeah, that’s nice, but I don’t have time to get all sticky and sit and carve out airheads for an hour to create that DIY, but I would LOVE (wink, wink) to get into the valentines spirit! Then this is for you. I took the lettering that I created for the project and turned it into a valentines day desktop and iPhone wallpaper. Like I said in the last post, I try to keep things pretty versatile cross-season, so this can be used as a general lovey reminder throughout the year, not just for valentines.

1600×1200 // 1024×768 // 1900×1200 // iPad // iPhone 5 // iPhone 4 + 4S

I hope you have a great weekend friends! I’m taking this weekend to catch up on some research, go through your surveys so far (thank you!!), and will start to try to master that typeface-sketch to vector process—I’m getting there. What are you up to?

After hearing about a contest going on for bloggers to create a unique DIY project using airheads candy, I thought it was about time that I tried out my very first DIY post here on Pinegate Road. Since this summer I’ve been really trying to cut back on the sugar, so instead of creating an edible I decided to combine my love for hand lettering with this craft project. Airheads is the perfect sticky substance to make a window transfer, so I just went for it. You can make your very own valentines day shadow box by following the steps below! I lettered a template that you can print out so you can create the same image, or you can go ahead and create your own design for any occasion. I honestly think I’m going to keep mine up all year—it’s cheery and fun, and the fact that it’s made out of airheads makes it super sweet (hah, pun!?). Allllright.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

Airheads Candy

Shadow box frame

Ribbon

Two nails

Hammer

X-acto knife

Washi tape

Printed design — download mine here

It took a while, but piece-by-piece you can cut and combine the airheads to fit over the template. I definitely had some sticky fingers during this process — and I made a vine about it too. You can follow me by searching pinegateroad if you want to check out more posts —hey, I’m getting a hang of it.

I’d love to see if you decide to make this valentines day shadow box! Topping your project off with a ban.do pom never hurt anyone either… Happy Valentines Day friends!

PS: Voting is open for the next two days. If you could take two seconds and vote for my project, I’ll send you mucho internet hugs! xoxo

EDIT: Love the DIY but don’t have the time to complete it before valentines? Get in the spirit by downloading the desktop and iPhone wallpaper!

You’ve heard it before, the alt summit business card exchange is just one of the special things that happens when you head out west. Along with the recent redesign I designed my very first professional business cards just in time. Previously I was using thin rolodex paper and a truly homemade stamp — I was ready for the upgrade! Once the design was complete, I sent my cards off to Cotton Paperie to get letterpressed. They definitely didn’t disappoint. The quality was superb, and the price was much lower than other places I received quotes from. I really loved that they had an instant quote available too — on my tight timeline, that set them apart from the rest! Last-minute I also decided to create some hand lettered postcards to give as another takeaway at the conference. Along with some velum envelopes and custom stickers, I was all set.

I’m seriously in love with my cards — is that weird to say? I just really enjoy letterpress, and I’ve been having so much fun playing with my new branding and spreading it across all aspects of Pinegate Road. I think I’m just proud to have pulled this off honestly. A year ago I would have never imagined to be at the place I am now with this blog and my career—I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit sometimes for those little accomplishments. I think it’s in good practice to sit back and be proud of them. I’m going to relish for a while, excuse me.

Alright, that’s enough of that! On to my favorite alt summit business cards. I had a very hard time narrowing my favorites, so I decided to categorize them into three groups. I hope you get the chance to take a look through all the wonderful ladies behind the cards!

ONE // TWO // THREE // FOUR // FIVE // SIX

ONE // TWO // THREE // FOUR // FIVE (this card was made of velvet, what!)

ONE // TWO // THREE // FOUR // FIVE // SIX

Last but not least, after all this Alt exchange excitement, I wanted to bring a little Alt to those of who you didn’t have the chance to make it out to Salt Lake this year. I’m going to send out five hand lettered postcards to you! The first five readers that email me their address with the subject line ‘postcard’ will get a special note from me in the mail sometime soon. So, email away and I hope you enjoyed all the lovely business cards I landed at Alt Summit!

E is for Enjoy

If you’re in a similar situation as I am, chances are you’re working hard to make work, make a lot of good stuff, and get the bills paid. It’s happens more often than it doesn’t that I am loaded down with so much work, I often have no time for anything else. And ladies, we all know we need time for ourselves!

But besides making time for a life outside of our creative work, we also to make sure that the work we do is work that we also enjoy. If you’re a freelancer, times may be hard and you have to take every job you can take – I understand that, but don’t skimp on necessary things. If you turn down projects that don’t pay well enough, then also don’t take jobs that might pay but aren’t interesting/fun.

Try and make a habit to only spend time on things you enjoy. You’ll end up pouring more of yourself into the project, but it will be more fulfilling once it has been completed. Plus, I bet you’ll have more energy to do more creative things in the long run. Investing in good work helps foster more creativity and even better future work.

So if you have to sacrifice now so that you can inner designer peace, do it. Do what you need to do to enjoy your craft and the passion for it. Taking bad projects can squander the passion you have for being a designer, and that’s no good!

For this week’s TYPO GRAPHIC over at Design for Mankind, I hand-lettered a printable halloween card for you all! Head on over there to download the card and print away!

Firstly, I want to thank you all so much for the support that you’ve shown me since I announced some of the changes that I’ve been making in my life. It’s been amazing to know that beyond my immediate surroundings there are people out there rooting for me, and that makes me feel happier than you could ever imagine! While it’s only been a short while, one of my mantras lately has been to embrace change. While it can be scary, it is also extremely exciting to forge into unknown paths and to kind of figure it out as you go. I definitely reverted a little over the past week, but you know, even when we fall down we can get right back up and keep forging on and that is how I’m going to embrace these changes that I’ve started to make. As a thank you, and as a motivational reminder, I’ve created a desktop wallpaper that will remind you to embrace the changes happening around you.

Today I’m heading off to a health retreat for the next ten days. If I haven’t already introduced enough changes into my system, this retreat will be sure to shock it! I can’t wait to come back feeling refreshed and more motivated than ever to continue along my path of healthy living and well-being and to hit the ground running when this quarter starts a day later. Wish me luck!

EMBRACE CHANGE WALLPAPER – 1920×1080

EMBRACE CHANGE WALLPAPER – 1920×1200

EMBRACE CHANGE WALLPAPER – 1600×1200

EMBRACE CHANGE WALLPAPER – 1280×1024

Last Friday I shared a personal story involving some unexpected typographic inspiration that happened to me and my group-mates last summer while working on a project. I love when things happen like that. Check out the post and some of the inspiration over on Design for Mankind.

Past posts:

1 // TYPE AS IMAGE

2 // FOR THE LOVE OF THE TERMINAL

3 // VINTAGE, AND VINTAGE INSPIRED, TYPOGRAPHIC BOOK COVERS

4 // HAND DRAWN LOVE

5 // TYPOGRAPHIC WEDDING INVITATIONS

6 // TYPE THAT’S LOVED FOR…

7 // FIVE FAVORITE FREE FONTS

8 // MY GO-TO TYPEFACES

9 // UNIQUE ARRANGEMENT

10 // VINTAGE TYPOGRAPHIC PACKAGING

11 // UNEXPECTED INSPIRATION

TRAVERSER: french for — to pass, to cross, to traverse, to span.

There are certain links that I come across throughout my study of the internet that I just can’t seem to shake.

ONE—This week I feel in love with this article about the creation of the typeface Krul. Learning about the history of how and why type is created is on of my deepest pleasures, and this story was a treat indeed.

TWO—La Buena Vida has quickly become a favorite recipe blog of mine. Being a recent kale fanatic myself, this recipe is calling my name. My fridge is swimming with this green goodness, and I can’t wait to try this one out.

THREE—Miss Moss‘ post entitled Rugs not Drugs has me oogling in delight. What a fantastic collection of floor décor!