Handlettered Motivational Quotes

I always feel we can make the world a little bit better by communicating positivity with each other. Communicating positivity can be something simple as smiling and asking “how are you” to someone without any expectation in return. I wanted create a way I could communicate positivity with my art. I started to question and internalize the thought of how I can use my own natural positive energy and fuse it with my desire to makes things and share that with the world?

By communicating positivity I believe I can help people, and I get an incredible sense of fulfillment when I can help somebody. At the time I was really getting into inspirational messages from TED Talks, thought leaders like Simon Sinek, industry experts like Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk, and other motivational speakers. Combining my growing interest in lettering and love for art, I decided I would handletter inspirational quotes and share these messages via emails I would send out and on my Instagram.

Now that I know what I want to create I have collect inspirational messages that resonated with me. If a quote made me feel good then it most likely would make somebody else feel good.

Research & Brainstorming

Combing through TED Talks, video clips, or articles I collect these inspirational messages in a Google Docs spreadsheet. I meticulously label each quote with the person who said it.

Sketches of different inspirational messages on tracing paper. I like to draw multiple variations next to each other to easily compare each idea.

I need to have a streamlined process to create these handlettered quotes because I made a promise to my audience to deliver weekly emails, and I want to be more active on Instagram and post daily. The way I can post daily is by not only showing the finished result but also pictures documenting my process. That being said, I must find ways to save time in the creation process. Normally I will ink my sketch then take a photo of the inks, so I can vectorize it in Illustrator. Saving some time by emitting the vectorizing process, I draw my quote in Procreate on the iPad. From there I export my files to Photoshop to finish the lettering.

Final Design

Application

These handlettered quotes are featured in a weekly email series called "Cup of Sunshine". In addition to the handlettered inspirational messages, I'll share some positive news about the world.

In addition to the email series, I post the quotes on my Instagram. Functioning like a director's cut dvd, I use my Instagram to not only highlight the handlettered artwork but also feature sketches and other process pics I did to get to the finished art.

Results

Communicating positivity can go a long way. Below are messages that people have sent me in reaction to sharing positive and inspirational thoughts. Looking through these reactions you can really feel the emotional impact that these have made to people.