5 books to find your own way

Here are some references that helped me on my way to become more aware of what I wanted to do.

Note: I would like to apologize because I could not send last week issue of the newsletter. My grandmother passed away and I spent the whole week in my family taking care of my parents. Sorry for that :)

Hi everyone,

First of all, I would like to thank you for the support you all brought to last post. I received a lot of messages, I mean A LOT, of friends struggling the same I did with my work. And in some sense, It made me really sad to hear that things are complicated, more than what we could see from them on social medias. I think we need to talk more about our feelings. We don’t have to stay alone in our small corner spending time looking at others people work and feel like ours is shit.

Books are my therapy.

So, in order to continue sharing my experience, today I would like to talk to you about a few books that helped along the way. I do read A LOT. Books are my therapy. So here are 5 books (to keep it short) that helped me the most. Some are directly related to work/lettering/type/illustration, and some are not but still totally important for mental health.

1. Find your artistic voice, by Lisa Congdon

This book changed many things in my career. First, it gave me insights on how to find my style and my voice. I wanted to go in my own direction, and after reading that book, I did start my 3rd “100 days of lettering” on Instagram, working in the specific style I wanted to do, but also in the environments I wanted to work with, outdoor and mental health. This last one was also where I wanted to have my voice. I wanted to talk about nature, but also about depression, anxiety and burnout.

The book also helped me to organize myself. Like finding a routine. And how routines, rituals, are important to structure your creativity (see third book ;-)).

I also really loved the different interviews in the book. Reading people experience is always really important to me.

2. Do walk, by Libby DeLana

This one is my bible. Walking is something I always practiced. My parents were really into it and I really enjoyed spending time with them in the forests when I was young. As I grew up, I spent more and more time outside and when I started working it really helped me being more balanced mentally.

But the world we live in now is more focused on screens and I see too many people sitting on a desk everyday and on the couch in the evening. People don’t move anymore. But they should because it is good for their physical health but also their mental health. We all need a break at some point. And Do Walk really shows you why and how walking is really important, especially for creative people.

I have a small pile of that book at home I offer sometimes to friends who I think it could be useful :)

3. Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey

This third book resonates a lot with Do Walk. It talks about artists, writers, or even scientists and their routines. And guess what? Most of them had a walking routine.

In his book, Mason Currey tells us everything about famous artists daily rituals. And what surprised me the first time I did read it (I think I read it 3 times), it is how these people were so organized. Their whole day was structured and that structure was repeated every day. We talk sometimes about how the artist has to be inspired but the book shows us that it is wrong. You have to do the work. You have to sit on your desk or wherever you want and start working. Some artists were really impressive, like locking the door of their office so nobody can enter and disturb them. Many were also doing daily walks of 3/4 hours! Could you imagine that today in our stressed out society where we tend to always say “I don’t have time for XXX…”?

Daily Rituals helped me to reduce my procrastination. Rituals reduce procrastination :)

4. The Great Alone, by Tim Voors.

Yes, another book about walking haha :D Sorry for that.

Tim Voors walked the Pacific Crest Trail, from Mexico to Canada, 4500kms in 5 months. This journey, outside of walking, gave him the opportunity to reflect on his life, to think about what is important and what is not. And I put that book here because I really like how the author did share his feelings on today’s society. And being out in the middle of nowhere really helped him focusing on some kind of minimalism. This is a great book for taking a break from daily life and think about what is really important for us. The book is also full of beautiful pictures.

5. Feck Perfuction, by James Victore.

James Victore is a fantastic mentor. In his book, he talks a lot about being who you are, about being human and imperfect, about accepting being different. As creatives, we feel sometimes different or a bit outside of a “norm”. And James Victore tells you to make a strength of what you think would be a weakness. Your weirdness is a gift. Being different is a gift. Being you is a gift. Don’t try to be someone else. And it does relate to me a lot about how many people are on social medias, sometimes trying to be like “the others”, trying to please a maximum of followers. But at the end, your difference is in who you are and people should like you for this.

I hope these books will be helpful to you. I have MANY others in stock if you wnt more! What are the books that are so important to you? Don’t hesitate to share in the comments or by replying to this email. I am sorry if there is not enough type or lettering in this issue, but sometimes we need to extrapolate on something more conceptual, more thoughtful.

But don’t worry, next week will focus on news and inspiration with some great type!

Enjoy your weekend and see you next week. And if you want to support my work and this newsletter, don’t hesitate to become a paid subscriber. You will have access to my WIP fonts, each release of my new fonts (for personal projects) and access to the WhatsApp group I did setup to share point of views on type in general and my projects.

Take care,

Francis