I recently worked on a project for class where each classmate had to pick a person, place or pastime unique to Wisconsin to hand letter and illustrate on a card measuring 8″ wide x 2.125″ high. I’ve never done any hand lettering so this was a fun experiment in my sketchbook.
We all had to use the same 2 colors (blue and orange) since we are having our cards printed on the off-set printing press on campus, which has two ink wells. I’m excited to follow the production process in the next couple weeks as we watch the printing plates get made, the inks mixed, the press run, and then work together to do the cutting, collating, and assembly of our Wisconsin-themed book.
Wisconsin is more than just beer and cheese. It’s more than America’s dairyland. I’ve had people around the country (adults… old enough to know better) ask me if we had trees in Wisconsin, as if it’s too cold and barren here for plants to survive. People, this isn’t the Arctic circle. It’s a beautiful state with lots of trees, trails and lakes, which is the theme I picked. I used random names of trees and lakes for a background texture on the front side of the card, and some simple facts for the back side of the card.
I’m excited to see the final book with everyone’s illustrated cards all bound together. In the meantime, I printed my card at home to use as a bookmark.
I loved experimenting with hand lettering combined with illustrations so I made a list of other topics I’m hoping to work on this summer. Stay tuned…
Thanks for stopping by.
Terri
Terri's Notebook 
You always do such a wonderful job! I love all of the sketches and hand lettering!
I was going to comment on your designs and say which one was my favorite. Then, I saw which was your favorite, because it’s the one you chose to do up in color. Same one I picked! What a fun project!
Thanks Stephanie! It was a fun project to work on, once I got over my fear. I was so intimidated at first, since I’ve always hated my hand-writing and never knew how to try other styles of lettering. I looked at some hand lettering books to see how other people make letters. And then I figured out it’s just like drawing, but making letters instead of scenes and other things.
Love it! I can see those bookmarks in souvenir shops.
Thanks, MaryKay! That’s a cool idea.
This looks really awesome! Hugs~Patti
Hello Terri,
Your very own personal bookmark how wonderful. Learning how all the processes it took to make this bookmark it certainly makes me appreciate your work even more.
Happy days.
Bev.
LOVE IT! I’m really pleased you settled on that design too as it was also my favourite and it looks amazing in print. I love all of the different elements you combined. Wisconsin looks like a truly fabulous place to live and visit and the bookmark would be perfect for a souvenir shop. They would make really neat fridge magnets too. You are such a talented designer.
I like the squirrel,bird and bicycle in the one drawing:)
WOW people always think because I am from WI that I HAD to of had a farm growing up!!! Never had the tree question though—people don’t think things through enough sometimes lol;)
Oh yea, I used to get that too about growing up on a farm! I did live on a dairy farm for a few years when I was little. But there’s so much more to this state than farms too. I think that’s probably typically of many states being misinterpreted.
I liked that one with the squirrel and bird too, but I worried about them being too small, and then I ended up picking a few more prominent icons to combine into my final composition.
I’m catching up on my reading, so this is, um, kind of late! Anyway, the questions people ask about your state are funny. We even get weird questions about California. I love your informational design. When Mark was working at a boy’s camp in Maine, where most of the attendees were uber rich kids from NY, and we were going to college in Kansas, someone asked if he had TV (it was in the 1970s) in Kansas. Um, what?