Designing in the cold
Hey Friends
Writing this week’s issue from some random coffee shop in Silverlake. Went to the flea market today to buy a new jacket because LA has been cold AF for some reason lately. My SoCal native ass cannot handle that cold dry wind lol.
From Dry Spell to Overload
The past 2 weeks I have been super busy with a few different client projects. I’m sure if you have been reading the newsletter for a while you remember the end of 2022 was kinda a client dryspell for me.
Well, that was bad/good while it lasted lol. I am so grateful now to have more clients but now that I have been busy and slammed it put it into perspective for me that I need to learn to appreciate the slow times more.
Instead of running around being stressed about where my next source of income is going to come in, I need to use that time to read more, play more video games, and overall recharge.
This year I am trying to be better overall at practicing what I preach. I feel like I have it all figured out when I am giving someone else advice and can be very logical about work-life balance, mental health, etc.
However, when it comes to myself I tend to fall into the bad habit of overworking. I guess though that it’s a good thing in a way. I mean I love what I do, it could be a lot worse.
The worst days I’ve had as a graphic designer were pretty even with some of the better days working shitty jobs I used to have.
Longwinded way of saying in 2023 I want to practice more self-love, gratitude, and integrity.
His subscriber count is over 1000!!
I am so grateful for all of you who subscribe to the newsletter. It’s fun for me to write as a journal-type thing but I also hope I’m adding some kinda value to all of y’all.
Since switching to Substack there has been some exponential growth! I think at the beginning of December we were at about 650 subs and now at the time of writing this we’re sitting at 1028. Pretty awesome to almost double in that short amount of time.
It’s pretty surprising tbh, because I have been writing the newsletter in total since October 2021! That is over a year and it took that long just to get to 600 so it’s pretty wild in 30 days it almost doubled.
Anyway I’m ranting, just wanted to say thank you and if you wanna help the newsletter more feel free to share with a friend!
Photo on the Clock App
I have been seeing a bunch of people( designers and not) starting to post photo slideshows on TikTok,
This is pretty motivating for designers who mainly create static images, it could be a cool way to start taking advantage of tiktoks amazing algorithm without having to make video content.
It seems a lot of non designers are using the feature as like an Instagram carousel type thing or Stories by adding text/images to create a little slideshow story.
I have also seen designers like Oversettext use this feature well to highlight some of their posters. I’ve tried it out a few times and the posts kind of flopped but I’m curious if y’all have tried this out or at the very least noticed this trend.
Not sure if this will be a sustainable option for artists/designers but it shouldn’t hurt to try it out. Let me know if you find a way to make it work!
Sneak peek
Here is a little sneak peek crop of my next blues legends poster featuring Slim Harpo. I made this in an upcoming video I have coming out on YouTube too that I am super proud of.
the video may not be a banger for the algorithm or anything but it is a message I really wanted to share and kind of a labor of love type video.
anyway, the full poster and above mentioned video coming soon…
Stuff to Check Out!
Tweet of the week below
Closing Thoughts
Recently uploaded this video below that was me reacting to some of my old college design work. It was a fun video to laugh at some of my old stuff, but in all seriousness, it’s so cool to see how far I’ve come. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the day-to-day of my design work or comparing myself to others. Honestly, though, I am pretty proud of myself these days and as long as I’m getting a tiny bit bitter each day, that’s good with me.
Much Love, Glue.
Weekly Wrap Up
Reacting to my old college design work
New Design Breakdown Video on Patreon!
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loving the blues series so far!