New prints for small budgets and great people to be inspired from...
Because not everyone can afford a A3 screen print, I decided to create small prints but still with pro quality
Hello my dear friends,
This week has been busy so far. No time to go to the workshop and practice some letterpress. This makes me sad. Also, I would like more time to get bored. Oh, the great excuse of not having enough time. My good friend Yannick said once: “it’s not that you don’t have time, it is that you don’t take that time”. And he was right. Things can wait. That world is too stressed out.
I did read that post in Offscreen Magazine 22 where the editor interviewed Jenny Odell, the author of the great book “How to do nothing” and the title of the post explains it all: “Nothing in the age of Everything”.
Our brain is so hacked by everything (digital) these days. Plus our version of capitalism became so rapidly a race to everything. And even if I know this and I read a lot about it regularly, I get easily trapped by the attention economy.
So in my routine, I did create some space for doing nothing or to try to be in the present moment. So I try each day I work to spend time outside, exploring the world around me with my Instax Mini Fujifilm camera. I find photography is a good way to just be in the present moment. Also, sometimes, when I go back home at the end of the day crossing the forest, I try to stop by a bench and listen to the birds. Then I do nothing. Or at least I try.
Mini prints for smaller budgets
But the last weeks have been stressful for one reason: cashflow is pretty low. So I made a bundle will all my fonts in it (still available until the end of this week!) and I thought about another idea I had in mind for some time already. I read somewhere that sometimes people want to buy something from you but your prices can be a bit too high for them, so offering more accessible products can be a good idea. I totally understand that a A3 Screenprint poster at 40€ + 15€ of shipping costs may be too much. To be honest I think this is pretty cheap for what it is. But too many people don’t have the budget.
So I decided to create small prints at a small price, 10€. The prints are sent in envelopes but reinforced with cardboard, so the shipping costs are also cheaper. I think max is 8€ for everywhere outside of Europe.
Each artwork is a fine art print, which means printed with pigmented inks on 270g Etching paper. So still great quality. And for these prints, I chose my favorite designs, mixed between some powerful lettering and some mid century mix of lettering and illustration. If you like them all you can also buy all of them for a preferred price of 45€. Here are some pictures:
Also, when you order one or several prints, you get a sticker and a letterpressed bookmark :)
I always try to be fair with my prices even if I think shipping costs being higher and higher are killing us all. I hope this idea will meet people who have limited budgets but still want to buy some nice quality stuff.
Here is the link to the website:
Note: Don’t tell her, but I stole the name “mini prints” from my friend Dani at Dotto Studio. Get one of her great mini prints too!
Daily Practice with Chris Campe
My friend Chris Campe posted on Wednesday something that really talked to me. She started the lettering challenge I launched in July and ended up doing it her own way, which is filling each day her sketchbook with words, in different styles. Read the description of her post, this is really interesting:
And in a comment I tell her that doing the Inktober challenge feels to me like answering each day a client brief haha :D But her way to create a habit “just” by drawing words each day is really really inspiring to me. Like, each day, take some time, maybe 15 minutes and just draw letters from a word that comes to your mind, maybe related to your inner weather? I am totally convinced it has a positive impact.
Hello Type Friends!
Elliot Jay Stocks just launched a cool new podcast project. Elliot has been for some time now in the type industry. He worked for Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts, but is also the person behind my favorite type magazine project: 8faces. 8faces was a magazine, published maybe every 6 months, where Elliot did interview each time 8 people of the type environment. That was so inspiring. He did create 8 volumes of that project.
And now he is back with that podcast project where he is also going to interview people but mostly friends he got the chance to meet in his career. For the first episode, he did invite Jessica Hische, one of the most famous lettering artist and they talk about type but also publishing books or setting up an IRL shop. Really Interesting!
Artist of the week: Peter Donnelly
Let’s finish this week with some nice illustrations from Peter Donnelly. You know my love for mid century illustration and I discovered the work of Peter recently recently through Pinterest I think. And I love everything he does. Shapes of trees for example give me the will to draw trees right now!!! Chech out his work through his instagram account and here are some shots I particularly liked:
This is it for this week :) Enjoy the end of the week, take some rest, go out sitting on a bench and listen to the birds, bring a good book with you (but nothing related to work or self help, you need a break! haha), listen to Elliot’s great podcast and draw some trees like Peter Donnelly. I did not tell you to buy my prints, but if you want to, I will be happy! :D
Take care,
Francis
Peter Donnelly' work 🤩