This makes me feel good

Because it does not always have to be about being productive

Hello friends,

I talked about it many times but as I just started a new challenge and launched 2 new courses, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about it a bit more.

Some years ago I realized I did not like doing lettering anymore. It was all about fancy technical trends on Instagram where you had to do perfect curves and spaces. People even shared their Beziers curves in order to show how technically good they were.

If it was impressive on one side, it was desperately flat on the other one. I had the same problem with my client projects. I always started with cool and fun ideas and after a few modifications, it became nice technically good but poor emotionally. And that is what most of clients did want: something nice but not too “special”. It had to stay “global”.

Then I discovered Saul Bass and his movie credits. I discovered Jim Flora and his music album covers and illustrations.

I talked about these people on my Domestika course.

And when I discovered these people I remember saying to myself: “this is something. This is truly emotional”. And this was emotional to me because it was imperfect and human. It did convey a feeling to a movie. This was really part of the movie itself.

I then started to start playing with shapes and letters. And after hesitating for WEEKS!! I decided to share my studies on Instagram. And you know what?

This is when my account exploded!

My account started to have great attraction from the day I shared imperfect stuff, messy sketches and experimental letters. And again you know why it happened?

Because this is what people are interested in. They are interested in humanity, feelings and imperfection. They can relate to it. And I made a reel last week on that subject saying:

Your imperfections are what makes you interesting.

fran6

A post shared by @fran6

But overall probably the most important of everything is that it makes me feel good. I feel good doing what I do. This is me. This is not a trend. And at the end, this is why people come to me. They come for my work and its identity.

So yes, starting this challenge and sharing my style in my new courses is important to me.

Doing what I like and the way I do it makes me feel good and in the era of AI, playing with scissors, glue or markers is really important.

This is why I want to share with you in my courses but this is also why I do myself the challenge:

I see it like a mental health routine, spending some time with me and my creativity.

Learning Lettering the Fun Way or doing Collage Lettering is for fun. This is for you to explore new ways of taking care of you creatively. Maybe like me it can bring you client work. But this is really not the idea for me behind sharing these courses. The idea is really to give you the opportunity to step back and enjoy playing with shapes. And doing the challenge is just that too:

Giving me, or you, half an hour a day for myself, relaxing, letting the child in me play, away from the crazy world and its responsibilities.

We don’t need to be productive 100% of the day. We don’t need to turn everything in a side hustle. We need to find time for ourselves, just to take care of us. And markers or color papers and scissors are what I found to do it. So if I can help only one person, I will be happy.

The challenge started on Tuesday but why not join us from now, even only for a few days during the month? This is a challenge for me but it does not have to be one for you if it’s too much.

Also, you can still take my courses for half price until the end on the week. Maybe you can do one exercise a day and do the rest at your own pace?

Take the time to think about it and more generally of the time you take for you creatively, for your inner child to express him-her-self. Without the push to even publish something. And maybe doing fun letters is not your thing? Maybe this is making photographs? So do it! And do it for you.

I hope that kind of discussion will talk to you. Let me know in the comments:

Enjoy the summer. I really mean it. Enjoy the sun, the sea or the mountains, go out, Nature is free. And give you some time to play :)

Take care,

Francis