One Squiggly Line Blog
Hand-drawn pictures can make things clear, simple, and fun in blogs, too!
Fancy lettering is great. Simple lettering can be great, too. If you think about each letter as a part of a design instead of just a plain old letter.
One way to turn simple letters into a design is to switch up the sizes. Make some of the letters bigger than normal. Make others smaller. Switch up upper and lowercase, too.
The only rule here is that whatever you end up with is visually interesting. And you'll most likely want to be sure people can actually read the message, too!
I'm really big on creative lettering. That's partly because I like to draw letters. When doing graphic recording or illustration work, I've found lettering appeals to pretty much everyone. If there's too much text (regular writing) people lose interest. If there are too many pictures, people get lost. Fun, fancy, creative lettering is the middle ground between pictures and text.
I did some creative lettering practice a little while ago. I set a timer for 2 minutes and drew as many different capitol c's as I could in that time. (I may have gone over a little, I don't remember!) Here's what I came up with - plenty of different ways to draw a common letter!
Visual thinking is about communication. It's not about art. But sometimes, visual thinking and art do overlap a bit. Especially commercial art or graphic design.
Sometimes, whatever you're thinking about may not be so visual. Or you may not have time to draw something that truly conveys the message. Or it might take a more complex image to get the real meaning across. Or you may be working with others who didn't understand the picture you first drew. That's where lettering comes in.
Most people think visual thinking is all about pictures. And lettering doesn't really matter. But every mark on the page becomes part of the visual. That includes the letters! If you draw the letters, instead of just writing them like you usually do, they take on a whole new meaning. And look. They become as much of the message as the words themselves.
Whether your message is big and bold or soft and dainty, make it obvious with your letters!
Visual thinking is all about using visuals to help you think better. And if you're going to think about something, it's got to hold your attention. Maybe even grab it in the first place.
Great big blocks of text can be pretty boring visually. And if you're not interested in the content, your mind will probably wander. Probably far, far away from the content, too. And that doesn't help you get stuff done.
If the text is a bit more visually interesting, though, it will hold your attention. When there's stuff to look at, people will look! And if they're looking at words, they'll read them, too. Even if they're not interested in the content. The visual appeal draws them in.
Want to be a more visual thinker by this time next year? More creative? More productive? More confident? And a better communicator, too?
Then make this the year you dive into visual thinking! By visual thinking, I mean drawing out a picture to help you think better. Not drawing to create a great picture to hang over the couch. Physically drawing out the idea in your head makes it much easier to work with. Then, you can really flesh it out because you can see what's missing. And what you can get rid of. Or maybe you'll decide it's not such a great idea after all. If it just stays in your head, you'll always wonder.
The act of drawing your ideas can help you think more creatively, too. It makes you look at things in new ways. And figure out how things fit together. When there are gaps in your drawing, you'll naturally brainstorm ways to fill them.
Once you have a clear picture of whatever you've been thinking about, you'll be much more confident about doing something with it. You'll be able to explain your idea or information to others much better. And they'll understand it more quickly because you've explained it so clearly. If you're fuzzy about it, they will be, too.
Not sure where to start? Email me and I'll give you some options!
There's a myth floating around that creative people are not so practical. Truth is, the most successful creative people are really highly practical. They think about what can be accomplished with what they already have. And then use what they have in new ways.
One of those things is time. The great thing about visual thinking is that it doesn't take much time. It's quick and simple. And that frees up your time to really accomplish things.
Even one little picture makes a huge difference. And there's no need for it to be fancy. Just keep in mind: The simpler the drawing, the more you'll have time to draw. And the more you practice, the faster you'll draw!
There's more than one way to draw pretty much everything. Especially letters!
For some great visual and creative thinking practice, pick something and try to draw it as many different ways as you can. If you set a time limit, you'll actually work a lot faster. It also helps you to not focus on whether or not you like what you just drew.
Here's my 2 minutes worth of lower case d's, drawn on a white board.
Hand-lettering has a certain charm computer generated letters just don't have. The letters are never perfectly formed. Spacing is never 100% uniform. And lines are never perfectly straight. All those little imperfections are where that charm comes from.
Take a look at the quote above. This was done rather quickly, with a permanent pen straight from the start. So obviously, things aren't perfectly planned out. Or perfectly drawn in. But it's safe to say, the text is far from boring.
That's partly because pretty much all of the white space is between the letters. To make the words fit the page, I had to get creative with the spacing. It's unpredictable. It breaks the rules a bit. And that's what makes it interesting.
Big blocks of text can be very boring to the eye. So the next time you're faced with a big, boring block of text, let the words fill the space. And forget about making everything perfectly uniform.
Lines are a big part of drawing. When not used for the main part of the picture, they're often overlooked. But that's easy to change!
If there's something unique or surprising about the lines, people will notice. That sense of mystery draws them in. And the visual captures their attention for much longer.
Take a good look at the steam lines coming out of the mug above. There are a lot of ways those lines could have been drawn to give the effect of steam. There are a lot of ways "Merry Christmas!" could have been written, too.
When the words "Merry Christmas!" are written in the steam, those lines suddenly become much more interesting. The words become part of the picture. They're definitely not an after thought!
So use those lines to really unify your visuals!
Movement makes people look. It's mysterious. Maybe even exciting. Kind of like going on a scavenger hunt. Even if you know exactly where you're going and what you're looking for, there are bound to be some surprises along the way!
That's why it's great to have visuals with a lot of movement in them. Especially if the topic is not so exciting. An energetic visual with a strong sense of movement will keep people interested. And their eye will naturally travel around the whole page. That means they're much more likely to take in all of your great information.
Cartoonists often use what they call "action lines". That's how they create the sense of movement in a still picture. And it works! Just look at the word "merry" in the visual above. It look like it's moving, thanks to those action lines!
Hand-drawn visuals to make things clear, simple, and fun so you can understand more deeply, communicate more clearly, and act more confidently. Visual Notes ~ Illustration ~ Sketch Animation ~ Graphic Recording ~ Other Creative Services.
One Squiggly Line | San Francisco Bay Area & beyond!, California, USA