handlettered memories

This was originally posted on Callaloo Soup’s blog. Check out her amazing website full of creative inspiration :)

Memory keeping has been a constant in my life ever since being given my first journal at the age of 11, and over twenty years later, I’ve incorporating this practice in one form or another. Today, I’m sharing with you what I like to call Handlettered Memories, which is basically a combination of handlettering, sketching and memory keeping for the time poor.

The picture above is my March Handlettered Memories in one of my traveler’s notebook-style grid inserts. The idea behind the Handlettered Memories was that I was finding it harder and harder to assign considerable time at the end of the day to engage in long-hand journalling, and I live a fast-paced lifestyle, so mornings are just out of the question as an alternative time. I also missed daily sketching, which somehow just disappeared out of my practice when my job got more demanding. And to top it off, during the Handlettered Memories inception, I was slowly being pulled into a past hobby of handlettering. So out of these thoughts, mixed with sleep deprivation and possibly too much sugar, I embarked on my first Handlettered Memories page back in July 2014.

That aside, today I’m here to share my process of creating these handlettered memories. At the start, I aimed to fill only one page of my notebook/journal – this takes the pressure and fear out of the blank page, and also means that the actual written content doesn’t need to be that long or detailed. I’ll usually assign 5-10 minutes of my time at the end of the day to reflect and get my creative juices flowing.

THE PROCESS

First, I’ll think of a phrase or a few details about my day that I want to capture, and I write this down or just keep it in mind. Sometimes, I’ll do this in advance and send myself an email with the phrase to refer to later on in the evening.

Second, I’ll pencil out the phrase in the next available space on the page. I try to use 2-3 lettering styles at any one time, and sometimes, if I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I make small variations to one lettering style. If I feel like sketching/doodling something from the day, I’ll usually draw this first, followed by handlettering, this way I can vary the lettering styles to encapsulate the sketch/doodle.

Finally, I outline the design in fineliners and add embellishments to the lettering, such as shadowing, or faux calligraphy. I keep my Handlettered Memories super minimalist by keeping it black ink – my fineliner of choice is the 0.05 and 0.8 nib sized UniPin fineliners. In the past, I’ve carried around some coloured pencils in primary colours and used these in some of my sketches.

 

 

Some quick tips to create your own Handlettered Memories

• Collect lettering styles from different forms of inspiration and try copy them. They don’t have to be perfect when you write them out again in your Handlettered Memories page – remember this is a memory keeping practice for you and no-one needs to see it, unless you want to share it. Search for ‘llamaletters’ and ‘sketchnotes’ for some super quick and easy ways to modify and beautify your lettering repertoire

• Handlettered Memories page layout: I tend to divide the page up in 2-3 columns and write to that, sometimes alternating from row to row working 3 columns across 3 days, then below that working across 2 columns the next 2 days. The aim is to generally fit as many of these memories on the page, and then add embellishments (e.g. sketches, doodles, etc.) as you see fit.

• As for the layout of each individual daily handlettered memory, there are so many options that it’s just all about experimenting with the lettering styles and working with the space that you have on the page. Once you’ve completed a few of these months, you find your own rhythm and layout that suits you.

Halfway through the month of March, I decided to shorten my Handlettered Memories even more and embark on what I penned the “Six-word Handlettered Memoirs”. In 2014, I was initially inspired by Smith Magazine’s ‘Six Word Memoir’, who appropriated the idea from Hemingway, who was apparently challenged to write a Six-Word Story. [Fun fact: This was Hemingway’s six-word story, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”]. I started handlettering these six-word memoirs in my bullet journal, and below is just a couple of examples.

So that concludes my Handlettered Memories. I hope that this inspires you to try something different to traditional memory keeping. Happy memory keeping!

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