I’ve been taking Kyle Steed’s Hand Type Class on Skill Share, and I love what he says about practice.
“It’s just sitting down and doing the work. I don’t think practice makes perfect, I think practice makes progress. Part of the beauty of making anything with your hands is that it’s ok to make mistakes, we can learn from those mistakes and get better through the process of making those mistakes.”
Currently coloring in flowers for this wedding invite I’m working on. I really like how they’re turning out!
A little peek at these wedding invites I’m working on atm. I just love drawing pretty things.
Every month whenever I do my summaries of the month, I’m always in shock that the month has gone so quickly.
This month I did a bit a travelling, (London post below), won gold for atomic awards on this campaign I worked on for Molson M (again post below) and a whole load of enjoying the beginning of summer! And work, of course. Just maybe. ;)
Follow me on instagram @belindalovelee to see my daily happenings.
1. Necessary tools for the trade!
2. A sneak at my current inspiration board.
3. For the longest time I was such a perfectionist that I wouldn’t even dare draw in my sketch book somehow I was afraid of making ugly mistakes and ruining the blank pages. I’ve finally conquered that stupid mindset and thought this name was appropriate for my visual journal. All the ideas!
4. Ain’t nothing like a old school sharpened pencil.
5. A day out on Monknash Beach. When it’s sunny days in the UK, you just got to take full advantage of it!
6. What appears to look like a baby seal has fallen deep asleep on my bed.
7. Here’s some hand type I’ve been working on for a client.
Belinda Love Lee is 1 years old and 1 month! (as a company that is) Last year month of April was when it all began- the wonderful journey of freelance. I’ve been meaning to write this blog post up for 2 months, but it’s so hard to gather all that you’ve learnt in as few words possible.
I call it a journey because it really is- work isn’t from 9-5, you can set up to work anywhere in the world, some days you feel like the shittest designer, other days you feel like you have the best idea EVER. AND steady income isn’t a part of your vocabulary at all. For me though, I would way rather live this life of doing something I’m so passionate about, than settle for some mediocre job, doing some mindless task, with the promising security and pay of 9-5.
Here are bits of advice that I’ve learnt along the way. Thought it might help those of you out there that are in the same boat, or are thinking of taking that jump into freelance.
1. Do what you fear most
Honestly at the beginning of my 1 year, I was in totally denial of social media, I hated it because it was so ‘mainstream’. It wasn’t until this year Jan, that I decided to stop being that ‘anti-mainstream’rebel snob, and started make an effort to engage with the community online. In actual fact, it was my fear of failure that was holding me back masked as a hate for social media. I was just so scared of putting my work online because I thought it wasn’t ever good enough. Yeh, you might be talented, but if don’t show the world no one will know. It’s that simple. Do what you fear most, because that’s what your made to be doing.
2. Shamelessly self promote
After taken the first intentional step of putting my work out there, I was then finding it hard to have a healthy balance of self promotion. I felt so rude and braggy constantly telling people to click on my links. It’s such an odd but crucial part of freelancing. I’ve learnt from other creatives to view self promotion more as an invite than a braggy task. You’re simply just inviting people to see what your up to, and they have the choice to engage with it or not. You start to realize that you don’t have to be super pushy, taking the annoying sting out of it. AND also why be ashamed of your talents, you have it for a reason, share it with the world.
3. Stay sane by surround yourself with likeminded creatives
Another big one that’s kept me afloat is by surrounding myself with creatives that always encourage me, no matter how shit I feel of myself that day. Honestly some days, I feel so un-motivated, so not creative, so ugly, so boring, just every negative thought. I sometimes feel so bi-polar! It’s when I’m drowning in negative self pity that I find sending a quick message to my creative friends help uplift me so much! Thank you so much to those who have walked this journey with me, Joe Stratford, Kitty N. Wong, Lois Seco, & Melody Hansen.
There’s so much more I could share, but I’ll keep it to these 3 points for now.
Thank you so much to all of you who have followed, rebloged, liked, and have featured my work! I honestly really appreciate it, and wouldn’t be living my dreams today if it weren’t for your support.
Ps. below is a compilation of all the logos I’ve worked on for the past year!
WHOA I just found out that the campaign I worked on for Molson M ’Paint with a Tweet’ won GOLD at the Atomic Awards in the Print Innovation category last night! To see more of the project visit my behance.
The Molson M “Paint with a Tweet” campaign was the world’s first twitter-powered mural. I literally hand wrote 10,000 tweets across a 100 feet wall. The ultimate goal was to create a beautiful piece of artwork that included the Twitter handles of participants and a matching $1 donation for each tweet. 10,000 Tweets later Molson M was proud to contribute $20,000 to the Canadian Art Foundation.
I had the privilage to work with digital artist, Kustaa Saksi, who design the graffiti mural.
Right in between the ladder is little old me at work! You see that fine gold penmanship, yes I did it ALL.
Happy as can be, hand writing 10,000 twitter handles.
It was probably one of the most fun projects I’ve worked on, the graffiti team, the behind the scenes BBDO team, Kustaa himself, were all amazing. I also got to chat and make lots of friends with the most friendly strangers.
I spent the last week-ish 5 days in London and was totally inspired by the city. The city is so vibrant, I kind of forgot how buzzing the city is! Did you know that London is apparently labeled as the most fashionable city in the world? I had a lovely time exploring the city like a tourist with my camera out at all times.
1. I made this little illustration just for fun, you can tell how excited I was to go.
2. On the road!
3. The main reason we went down was because my boyfriend is really into motorbikes and there was awesome custom motorbike show on. To my surprise I actually kind of enjoyed it. Photo taken by Joe Stratford.
4. We found an original Banksy!
5. Went vintage shopping down Brick Lane, and stumbled across these super cute letter playing cards. Brick Lane is such an interesting area, you have like the cool, super well dressed hipsters, and then you have like the crazy coo coo, off the wall sorts who I don’t quite get.
6. Had a little wander around the Tate Modern.
7. The beauty of art is that it’s so subjective. I absolutely loved this piece, but Joe thought it was rubbish!
8. Whatever city I travel to thirfting is always necessary. Went to shops around Portobello Market, and found this. Only in London, lol!
That’s really it! :)
Whoawhoawhoa! The thing about doing these little snippets monthly is that it makes me realize how quickly the months pass by. This month has been a pretty big achievement in my books, one of my biggest dreams came true and I am so grateful for it!
Here’s some pics of my month, follow me on instagram @belindalovelee to see my daily happenings.
1. A trip to Cotswold’s- a world of vintage shops, boutiques, pretty much picture perfect Britain.
2. Shreddie snackage, I thought was instagram worthy to capture.
3. Learnt the game of Dominios and dominated my boyfriend at it.
4. Yet another beautiful piece of art made of chocolate pretzels. I guess you could say food has inspired me this month!
5. A lovely color combo I’ve been working with.
6. A piece of my handwriting framed beautifully. It reminds me to be thankful for each day.
7. Nothing compares to sending snail mail to my family far far away, facebook just doesn’t cut it.
Hope your month was just as lovely!
Bee.
