GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #107

Seinfeld. One of the best TV shows ever.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #106

Mushrooms. Some people love them and some hate them (to eat). I love them. I'm also fascinated by them. There are so many varieties, and so many that are used for medicinal purposes and... recreational purposes as well.

I came across an article in a health food magazine called Remedies for Life (September 2015 issue) which I picked up at one of my local health food stores. The feature article is about medicinal mushrooms, "Mushrooms: Fancy Fungi for Better Health," written by Maria Noel Groves. It was very informational! Groves discusses how different varieties of mushrooms are being used medicinally to help with cancer, arthritis, diabetes, longevity, energy, immune system diseases and allergies, respiratory and cardiovascular health, high cholesterol, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, the article isn't online, but here is a short article by the same author that might be useful if you are interested: http://coopbewell.blogspot.com/2014/09/fungi-with-benefits-mushrooms-for-food.html.

Anyway, this article, along with a cool photo I found on Unsplash.com, inspired my daily HGT phrase. Enjoy.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #105

Ah, the questions that children ask. Actually, the questions that children ask are often the same ones that adults ask. Children just tend to have more creative answers. ;)

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #104

When did TBT become a thing? I suppose it started in the social medias. I have to admit that I do enjoy it...quite a bit! I rarely post old pictures, but I do occasionally. The real enjoyment is seeing what others post. I enjoy the feeling of reminiscing. I definitely don't live in the past, but it's sometimes fun to visit!

To go along with my HGT phrase, I'm also posting a couple of TBT photos. :)

Me on the left with my friend, Dawn, at my 4th b-day party

Me (at about one year old) in the box with my sister, Becky

And yes, it's Friday, not Thursday, but it felt like a Thursday all day to me. So there's that...

GLORIA'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #103

So much wisdom. So simple, yet so difficult. We are all attached to things...cling to things, people, feelings, opinions, our lives, our health, and so on. It's human nature. The Buddha taught that the root of suffering is attachment. One can love and be compassionate without attachment, without clinging. It probably takes many, many lifetimes, if you believe in reincarnation. If not, it can take a lifetime of practice! There is so much to be said about this, and I'll save that, perhaps, for another time. But, I do like this quote.

GLORIA'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #102

Great line from the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," one of my all time favorite kick-back-and-relax-and-laugh movies. :) (The line is said by the character Jeff Spicoli.)

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #101

A pun came to me today. I have no idea why. It's silliness! But I had fun creating four versions of it using photos from www.morguefile.com, another great resource for graphic designers.

Have pun.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #100

Keep it real, yo.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #99

I have an understanding, at least somewhat, of the human mind in terms of habitual thinking. We do it naturally. We develop mental habits and then, usually unknowingly, practice them. When we aren't aware of this, it can get us into trouble. The negative mental habits of complaining, thinking badly of ourselves, wishing things could be the way we want all the time, and so on, are strengthened every time we do those things. This is especially important when we get carried away by our thoughts of dread, anger, jealousy, self-pity, judging others and ourselves, and other destructive, negative feelings. This is not to say that it is wrong to have any of these feelings! It's human nature. But when they are allowed to fester and become repetitive negative patterns, we suffer. And suffering can only be helped if we are aware that these things are going on. Once we are aware that, for example, we are hooked by feelings of dreading future events and are thinking about how we imagine the future to be in a negative way, we can pause, label it "thinking," and gently but deliberately bring ourselves back to the present moment. We can do something different from what we usually do. This takes practice (for the rest of our lives, actually!), but we have to realize that whatever we practice, we strengthen.

There's a (I believe Hopi Indian) story about a grandfather telling his grandson about two wolves who live inside him. One is filled with love, peace, gentleness, joy, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance. The other is filled with hate, rage, jealousy, self-pity, dread, worry, judgement, meanness, despair, and resistance. The grandfather explains that only one of the wolves can live. The grandson asks which one will survive, and the grandfather replies, "The one that I feed." The story goes something like that anyway.

I find that I catch myself much more now than I used to when I am strengthening negative mental habits, and I also find that people I encounter—family, friends, and others—say things all the time that are just negative habits. Depending on who it is, I try to help them by explaining all of this to them and by giving them practical ways to strengthen positive mental habits instead. It's so important for inner peace.

Today's HGT piece is a message to everyone out there... that you CAN practice and strengthen positive habits, and that the more you do that, the less power the negative habits will have over you. So may you be free from suffering and the root of suffering. May you enjoy happiness and the root of happiness. May you be aware of what goes on in your mind and be compassionate with yourself. May you choose to do something different when you realize you are carried away by your thoughts, and may you practice and strengthen positive mental habits. May you be at peace. Namaste.

Gloria Roubal's Hand Generated Type Phrase #67 (Oops! Forgot to post it at the time!)

I posted my 100th HGT phrase yesterday, and I noticed that I only had 99 blog posts. So today I went back through them and realized that I had forgotten to post #67.

This is a slightly revised lyric line written by my wonderful music partner, Paul Sabuco, that is in our song entitled, "More Or Less."

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #98

Sometimes I look at the photos on Unsplash.com for inspiration. The photos that the photographers donate to the site are completely free and license free—a fantastic resource for graphic designers!

This one caught my eye today, and I knew exactly what I wanted to create and how it would look. That doesn't happen often!

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #97

So in the early 90s, I really liked this Chicago-based band called The Way Moves. I saw them live a couple of times, bought their record, and still listen to their songs occasionally. This song was a radio hit for them, and it's always been a favorite of mine. It's really about "waking up" and seeing the beauty in life—that life is short.

LISTEN TO REVEL by THE WAY MOVES

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #96

I think that forgiveness is so important. We have to learn how to forgive others and ourselves, rather than carry the heavy burden of resentment around for the rest of our lives. It's part of the key to inner peace as well as peace in the world. We all hurt others, knowingly and unknowingly, because of our fear and confusion and other things...and we can ask for forgiveness. We can forgive ourselves for all the ways we've hurt ourselves and others. It takes practice. It's a process; it doesn't happen just because we decide to forgive, but that choice is first step.

Gloria Roubal's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase #95

Champaign, Illinois is a great place to live. There are so many things to do, great restaurants, cool shops, entertainment, amazing live music scene, artists of all kinds, community events...I could go on and on. The climate leaves something to be desired at times, as does the topography (flat). There is natural beauty here, even so. It's only a couple of hours away from Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. It's a college town with a wonderfully diverse population.

Did I mention shops? There are so many cool and unique stores, boutiques, and shops. One of these is owned by good friends Matt Peckham and Erin Barkley, and it's called GO RETRO. I can spend hours in there! Rather than describe the store, here is an article that was recently written about GO RETRO:

Smile Politely Article about GO RETRO

I just saw this article today and decided to dedicate today's phrase to Matt and Erin who do such a great job with GO RETRO. Be sure to visit them if you are in the area. Address and Facebook info are at the bottom of the image.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #94

Why not another song title? There are so many cool ones. They're infinite, practically!

David Bowie's song, "Life on Mars?" was featured on American Horror Story last season ("Freakshow"), sung by Jessica Lang's character in the second or third episode. My friend and music partner, Paul, suggested using this title for my daily phrase. Thank you, Paulie!!! And I hope you likey!

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #93

This is #93. I can't believe I'm getting close to 100 of these! I still love creating hand generated type phrases, but I'm reaching a point of a slight burnout... I hope I can push past it. My goal is to do one of these every day for a year. Can I keep going for that long? I hope I can. I feel like I'm in sort of a rut and need to branch out to try other new things with these. There are SO many options! Part of it is the time it takes every day, and I'm getting busier with freelancing and other things, so sometimes I don't get to this project until late at night. Maybe I should start doing them early in the day. Anyway...

Here is today's. Just something I thought of.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #92

I think that this phrase means to trust your intuition, your feelings. I like that it is a Cheyenne proverb, and it simply spoke to me today. Plain and simple.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #91

Sometimes I see a photo and a song lyric comes to mind. That's what happened when I saw this photo by "Thom" which I found on unsplash.com, a great resource for designers by the way...

I heard this Rufus Wainwright song on the soundtrack of a TV show a couple of years ago, and I've always loved it. He has a unique way of singing expressively, and this song, along with the lyrics, definitely put me in a somber mood...melancholy maybe? I'm moved by it, and that's what art and music have the power to do.

Links to song and lyrics are below.

Link to studio version of the song
Link to an awesome live performance of the song

VIBRATE
by Rufus Wainwright

My phone's on vibrate for you
Electroclash is karaoke too
I tried to dance Britney Spears
I guess I'm gettin on in years

My phone's on vibrate for you
God knows what all these new drugs do
I guess to have no more fears
But still I always end up in tears

My phone's on vibrate for you
But still I never ever feel from you
Pinocchio's now a boy
Who wants to turn back into a toy

So call me
Call me in the morning
Call me in the night

So call me
Call me anytime you like

My phone's on vibrate for you

For you, for you

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #90

Happy 33rd Anniversary to my wonderful sister and brother-in-law, Becky and Steve!

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #89

Lisa Loeb is one of my many musical idols and favorite singer/songwriter/musicians. This is to honor her and her music. It's a line from her song, "Wishing Heart." Love her songs so much! Link to a live performance of the song plus lyrics are below.

WISHING HEART LIVE VIDEO

WISHING HEART

No teacher to follow

No prophet to tell me how

But I know what I want

I know what I want now

Like water, it rushes

It's the last thing you see

When you close your eyes

It's one place you want to be

But if it doesn't brush my shoulder

And it doesn't beat my heart

That's not what I want

No, that's not where I will start

I never kissed somebody

So that they would break my heart

That's not what I want

If you don't know what you're missing

'Cause you don't know where to start

Follow your wishing heart

I was restless, I was restless

I was restless, I was restless

I just want this to be good

I just want this to be good

But you don't understand

You don't understand me

And I want to be understood

But if it doesn't brush my shoulder

And it doesn't beat my heart

That's not what I want

No, that's not where I will start

I never kissed somebody

So that they would break my heart

That's not what I want

And if we all leap before we crawl, we might fall

And it's not always candy spun from head to heart

And it's not always meant to be

And it's not always up to me

But if it doesn't brush my shoulder

And it doesn't beat my heart

That's not what I want

No, that's not where I will start

I never kissed somebody

So that they would break my heart

That's not what I want, no, no

No, if it doesn't brush my shoulder

And it doesn't beat my heart

That's not what I want

No, that's not where I will start

I never kissed somebody

So that they would break my heart

That's not what I want, no, no, no, no

If you don't know what you're missing

'Cause you don't know where to start

You don't know what you're missing

Follow your wishing heart

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #88, August 12, 2015

I don't know why I was thinking of my favorite line from the movie, Mommie Dearest (and you probably won't understand why it's my favorite... it's because my friend Ken could "do" this line so perfectly!). My favorite line is, "Christopher... Christina... Damn it." It's the way she says it. The "coming-unravelled" slight shakiness in her voice, her inflection, the timing between the words...

So I probably thought of the line because I heard someone say the name Christopher or something. I couldn't get it out of my head. This is a brilliant film. Super disturbing, yes. But, I must enjoy being disturbed I guess because I tend to be drawn to these kinds of movies; not that I don't enjoy good non-disturbing dramas, comedies, documentaries, chick flicks occasionally, even (yes, guilty pleasure) the Twilight series. But I digress.

I wanted to create today's type phrase using this line from Mommie Dearest, but it just didn't make sense to use this particular line. Nobody would understand it! Well, Ken would. Suffice it to say that I chose probably the most well-known line from the movie. Even people who never saw the movie probably know the scene where Joan finds a wire hanger in Christina's closet and reacts with a psychotic melt-down freak-out violent outburst; this may be the scene that shows she is totally fucking insane. I decided to use wire hangers to form the letters. Hope you enjoy.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #87

My lettering for BUG was inspired by my hero, Jessica Hische!

My fascination with praying mantises and other little creatures inspired my choice of art.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #86

And... I'm done.

Goodnight! Sweet dreams! I'll be back here tomorrow. Hope you will, too.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #85 (plus illustration)

I fell in love with Australian Aboriginal art years ago. The dots and how they are used are my favorite aspect of this art. I use dots a lot in my painting. The process of creating dot and dot patterns and lines is very zen-like and relaxing.

The artwork in this piece is something I created for a class project in which I designed a wine bottle label for an imaginary winery located in Australia. I called the series, "The Dreamtime Series," and I created a hand generated type, SHIRAZ, which went underneath it. For this daily project, I decided to tweak the artwork a little bit and create "The Dreamtime" in hand generated type. I spent many, many hours on this project, and decided that it could be used again for my daily phrase!

By the way, if you are curious about what "The Dreamtime" is, here is the beginning of the description found on http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/culture/dreaming.php. "The Dreamtime" is also known as "The Dreaming"; the terms are synonymous. Visit the site for more. Or visit this site, another good one: http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html.

"The Dreaming is a term used by Aborigines to describe the relations and balance between the spiritual, natural and moral elements of the world. It is an English word but its meaning goes beyond any suggestion of a spiritual or dream-related state. Rather, the Dreaming relates to a period from the origin of the universe to a time before living memory or experience - a time of creator ancestors and supernatural beings."

Gloria Roubal's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase #84

I don't know why I thought of this, but I wanted to combine a simple illustration (of mine) with type. For some reason, I thought of the fairy tale, "The Three Bears," and decided to replace the obvious with a fruit, which, in turn, was really fun to draw. Maybe I should write a children's book based on this title!

Gloria Roubal's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase #83

The Oxford comma. I use it. You should, too.

I'm too tired to go on my rant about it, but I do feel quite strongly that using the Oxford comma is, indeed, the correct way to punctuate a serial list. So, there's that.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #82

More and more I come across young people who haven't heard certain sayings or slang from earlier eras. That's one reason I love to have friends of all different ages—we all have distinct culture/pop culture knowledge from our particular generation that we can share with one another!

This is one such old saying. It apparently originated in the south (U.S.), and it is a way of saying, "You're nice," "Thank you," or "You're sweet." Or, it follows a thank you. For example:

Me: Would you please hand me that pen?
You: Sure, here you go.
Me: Thanks! You're a peach.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #81

I believe that love is the strongest and most important force in the universe. I believe that every living being is filled with love, with light. It is the natural state of being. Many things come into play and hide this love. We can easily see love in a puppy's eyes, but what about other animals? What about other people? What about ourselves? I know that love, and other related states/emotions/traits such as compassion, generosity, empathy, trust, and forgiveness are within all of us, even when we don't think they are. I ramble... but I do believe that love is needed by and also within every being. And even when we leave this body behind through death, love remains.

That is all.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #80

Music, art, dance, movies—these creative expressions impact me deeply and daily. They enrich my life, both in my own creations and also the abundant beauty found in the creative expression of others. As I'm a graphic designer and musician, I'm having a fantastic time creating the phrases that are song titles, lyrics, musician/band names, and quotes about the inspiration that music provides so many people.

My hand generated type phrases are getting better (I think), and I'm getting faster at it. I can't believe today is number 80! Today's piece is a lyric line from a beautiful song called "Intuition" by FEIST. It's so moving to me in the way Leslie Feist sings it (so many of her songs move me this way), I'm sometimes moved to tears. Anyhow... here you go. I hope you like it. (And, I again used a photo from Unsplash.com, a wonderful resource for designers and other creatives. Be sure to visit the site!)

LINKS:

"Intuition" by Feist LIVE

"Intuition" by Feist, studio version, from the record The Reminder

All lyrics to the song

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #79

Some friends of mine had a band some years ago called TEMPLE OF LOW MEN—a damn good band. Great musicians, songwriting, performance, recordings... Geographic challenges pretty much ended the band, but there have been reunion shows now and again. Anyway, my favorite song of theirs is called, "Languid." Here are the main lyrics of the chorus.

I wish I could find a link to the song so that you could listen to it, but I'm not having any luck.

TEMPLE OF LOW MEN

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #78

Yes, the greeting card companies control the holidays, so to speak... but I don't care because I love reasons to celebrate people, animals, history, and much more. When I say celebrate, most of the time I mean acknowledge. I have to say I got excited when I saw somewhere that there is a National Chocolate Day! I created a type design for that immediately, even though it isn't until late October.

Anyway, I started seeing that August 2 is Friendship Day. That day is today.

Friendship is so very important. True friendship. A person is lucky to have even one true friend. I am so fortunate to have a true soulmate best friend with whom the bond we share is on the spiritual plane. I am also so lucky to have several true close friends. The love between true friends is unbreakable, unshakable, unmistakable!

So, friends old and new, near and far, close and more casual, young and old, related by blood or not, two- and four-legged... I wish you a very Happy Friendship Day.

(Note: The photo is one of me and two of my very first friends when we were three or four years old, probably taken by my mom!)








PS: Here is a reposting of the National Chocolate Day piece.

Gloria Roubal's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase #77

It's just that kind of a day.