Free Print: A Party Without Cake is Just A Meeting

It’s pretty obvious that the life of a Graphic Designer involves tons of time in front of a computer screen.  While there are many days where the ideas just flow from my head to the screen, there are also days where I stare at my brightly lit screen and…nothing. Nada. Thankfully those days don’t come too often, but I usually find that they are the days when I just need to step back from my computer and try something new. And that’s usually the point where I get out my old-school sketchbook and markers and put the pen to the paper. I think it’s sometimes assumed that designers always start their ideas on the computer and then boom – a final product is presented. While that’s actually a totally understandable way to think, there’s so much more “behind the scenes” sketching and conceptualization that goes on before that final look is perfected. I have a few blog design projects that I just launched that all started with simple sketches, and then got digitally transferred. The header text in this recent blog design? Started with a marker & about 50 versions of the word “Glossy” until I was happy with how the word looked. I’m planning to share more behind-the-scenes of that design (and a few others) in the coming weeks, so stay tuned if you would like a little peek into my design process.

So as I was busy working on a few things the other night, I just got the craving to close my laptop and draw. Anything in particular? No, not at all. I was just going to doodle until I wanted to stop. And just by doing that, I instantly felt less stressed, more creative, and just overall more calm. The thing I love about sketching is that there are no expectations or constraints. You have the ability to break any “rules” that you may otherwise put on yourself, or that you are led to believe exist. So while I’d like to say that I had a grand plan before creating the print below, I didn’t. I took a Julia Child quote that a friend sent to me, doodled away, did a little digital coloring, and then…

…this happened. A little “A Party without Cake is Just a Meeting” hand-drawn type action came to be. Nothing fancy, just the result of a much needed, relaxing drawing session. Some people go shopping, or read a book to de-stress, I guess my thing is just to draw. Weirdo alert.

Through doing this, I decided to try to make it a habit to do a little typography sketching a few times a week before hitting the hay. Even if it’s just ten minutes, I think it will be fun to look back on the past designs. I’m also opening up suggestions for quotes you may like to see drawn out, so feel free to submit one, and I might just turn it into a printable just like the one above!