Hand Lettering

Just because it’s the Zombie Apocalypse doesn’t mean there aren’t decent design jobs

Not sure what it says about the state of the economy but I just launched my first campaign for a new product to help consumers stock up for the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s called Zom-B-Gone, a Zombie Repellant offered by one of our clients, Birdy Botanicals. Anyway, it was big fun doing the 95% hand-lettered label, infographic, Facebook timeline, blog post, website product images, etc. I’d say it was a …

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Simple words sometimes house complex truths

In my formative twenties I knew some remarkable people. Peter Strauss was one of them. He was a therapist by profession, a mentor, a fellow youth worker, and a truly unique individual who had a gift for cutting through the crap and getting to the essence of things. This quote is something he once said to describe what he thought was the central conundrum common to all his therapy …

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Excellent hand lettering tutorial

I found this piece by designer Sean McCabe to be right on point, especially if you’re just now becoming interested in hand lettering. It squares with everything any teacher has ever told me about hand lettering and/or calligraphy—which pretty much boils down to “practice, practice, practice…then practice some more”. In other words, if you live long enough you might get good at it. In this tutorial, McCabe describes his …

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Festina Lente – Make Haste Slowly

Lettered during the Manchester United v. Tottenham Hotspur EPL football match which got much more exciting as the game progressed. Probably explains why it has about a 5 degree tilt. Anyway, perhaps wise words when it comes to soccer and/or hand lettering.

Beam Me Up Biscotti Label

This is clearly a case of a metaphor mixing misdemeanor but oh well. I might reprise it again for Christmas gifts if for no other reason than the recipe is so BISCOTTILICIOUS! I think we made 15 batches, and some for other people as well.

High-Res Chalkboard Background

How to fake a chalkboard effect in Photoshop

Resources: How to Spiff Up Your Hand Lettering in Photoshop Free Downloadable Chalkboard Backgrounds Hey look…a new Foolish file! Hi-Res Chalkboard backgrounds in 3 flavors! By popular demand we’ve added a set of high-res backgrounds for just a buck ninety-nine. These will work a lot better for anything you intend to print at 8.5×11 and smaller. The Tutorial Every once in a while it’s fun to go off the …

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Free Downloadable Chalkboard Backgrounds

A few fellow letterers have asked about the chalk backgrounds I’ve been using for some recent Pinterest posts. Actually those were created using a stock photo of a chalkboard as the base file and while that’s always an option, I thought I’d try creating a convincing chalkboard image myself (sorry iStock) and make it available here on Foolish Fire. Download the .zip file here The folder includes a gray, …

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A Beginner’s Guide to Spiffing Up Your Hand Lettering in Photoshop

This post is in response to a comment in one of this past week’s Board postings, asking how one cleans up a file in Photoshop. I’ve been a member of this amazing Pinterest Hand Lettering board (thanks, Amanda) for only about a week and I’m already noticing that by far the most popular method of presenting work is to photograph one’s sketchbook and post it, which is admittedly fast, …

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