Week 47: Designer Dingbats
My dingbats origin story <3
Hey y’all!
Anyone else feel personally victimized by Uncle Sam every tax season?? As a freelancer, I have the annual irrational fear of owing 4,000 hundy sticks. (Side bar: hundy sticks is a phrase I heard somewhere that has been stuck in my head for weeks. I am saying it to you solely to get it out of my system.)
So anyways — fonts. At the beginning of this week, I was working on something I am genuinely stoked about and will likely revisit next week. But I quickly realized, between tax-induced meltdowns, that I didn’t have the appropriate time, energy, or usual excitement for it this week. Therefore, I decided to give you a fun little present this week instead of making something new. It’s the thing that started my obsession with dingbats.
Sometime during the chaos that was 2020, I realized that I kept using the same shapes and objects in my design work. I would make them from scratch each time and was getting frustrated with the inefficiency. I decided that I wanted to put them together in one file so I could easily access them for the next project. First, I made a master illustrator file with all my repeat shapes and would dump any new shapes I made onto it’s single, giant artboard. This amassed into a nice little library. However, I quickly resented the fact that I had to open a whole file every time I needed to access it. Enough with this inefficiency!! Then the Edison bulb floating above my head flickered on. Why not turn it into a font??
And now that fun little library is in your hands. It’s filled to the brim with shapes, sunbursts, and squiggles. I use them most often for Instagram posts but they’re also good for collages, party invites (my fave), and posters. I hope you enjoy these and have a great weekend!! Next week, I’ll finish what I started this week — revisiting the flower font concept!
5 Things I’m Into This Week:
For the first time since my teens, I read one whole book in 24 hours. It was “The Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler. My best and beloved friend, Kat, recommended it to me a while ago and I finally sat down to read it last weekend. I got sucked in!! Definitely ordering the second book ASAP.
I watched Bridgerton season 2 this week. My feedback is: bored at first and then invested in not-so-shocking, shocking twist.
I’ve had a long term obsession with the band, Mountain Man. They came out with a “Play It Right” cover recently that’s really good.
The movie, Practical Magic. Great 90’s outfits and witchy vibes.
Really, really random: the song, The Shire: Concerning Hobbits, from the Lord of the Rings has been my calming song this week. Very off brand for me but I honestly can’t stop.
ttyl sk8r,
Libbie