As much as I love color, I can't resist classic black and white. Throughout the Happy Cactus Designs stationery collection, you can find black and white in geometric designs and brush floral patterns. Here's a few favorites. You can shop all black and white favorites in the shop here.
Hand-Lettered Thanks Flat Note Card Set
Thank You Black and White Tiles Card
One card that is always nice to have on hand is a general thinking of you card. I feel like it's hard to find non-cheesy cards in the sympathy or sending positive thoughts your way categories, so good thing I can design my own! My intention was to design a cheerful card that could hold many purposes - for someone going through a tough time, someone who has lost a family member, or someone who is ill.
This design started with a row of hand-drawn tulips. Compared to some of my other more detailed floral designs, I kept things very simple. I selected a color palette that was bold and uplifting - reds, blues, pinks, greens, and yellows. "Keeping you in my thoughts" was hand-lettered by me in a loose script.
You can find this card in the shop here.
My favorite shelf on my studio bookcase is the one with all of my books about lettering, script, and typography. It's so inspiring to see the variety of ways artists choose to represent words.
Here's a round-up of my favorite books:
Clockwise from top left: Sign Painters by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon / Creative Lettering by Jenny Dom / Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age by Steven Heller / Typography Sketchbooks by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico / Little Book of Lettering by Emily Gregory / Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili by Louise Fili
Practicing my hand lettering to some favorite Christmas songs!
I stumbled upon the music of The Lumineers about a month ago and their first full-length album has quickly become my summer soundtrack. Their folk rock sound is pretty infectious - think long ballads, foot stomping, hand clapping...So for this week's doodle, I took some lyrics from their song "Ho Hey" and worked on a little hand lettering. The background is a picture from the magical Cannon Beach, Oregon, that I took last summer. Here's the original music video if you are looking for a little blog reading soundtrack.