Lauren Hom is the "Bombay of the Day"

So I'm newly enchanted with designer/letterer Lauren Hom.

I'm also really excited to find that she has some online tutorials on techniques she uses, such as this one that shows how she adds dimension to her letters: TUTORIAL

I'm including one simple sample of her work from her blog (and book). She seems to be prolific, and I'll be posting much more of her work in the future! What I really enjoy about this is the texture, depth, shadowing, and simplicity. It's elegant. It has soul.

Having stopped creating my daily hand generated type phrases is giving me time to look at the work of others for inspiration! That's time well spent.

Check out her blog: dailydishonesty.com
And her website: homsweethom.com

From her website: "Daily Dishonesty is a book and award-winning hand-lettering blog. It combines my love of typography, humor, copywriting, and illustration. The blog documents the lies I tell myself on a regular basis. Hopefully, you're guilty too and can have a good laugh!"

Also, check out her awards: 

     2015 Communication Arts Typography Annual 5 Winner
     2014 Communication Arts Typography Annual 4 Winner
     2014 Webby Nominee, Best Personal Website
     2013 Webby Award, Best Personal Website

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #275

Here it is. My last daily HGT phrase. It's not my best design or lettering, but the message is important. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day! It's all about love. Valentine's Day and every day can be filled with limitless love, regardless of whether you have a significant other. It's the love inside you and how you choose to spread it to others! Love for yourself is what has to happen first, however. We have to learn how to see ourselves as worthy of our own love and compassion. It has to be practiced. You are deserving of your own deep love and compassion! When you practice that, then it's effortless to extend that love and compassion far and wide, to all beings everywhere.

Back to my fifth Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase on May 15, 2015, "LOVE IS ALL."

So please continue to read my blog. I plan to write a daily post, focusing more on the great design and lettering and other art and beauty that's out there. And, once a week I'll post a phrase (or maybe it will occasionally be a single word), and hopefully you'll see some newness in my work.

May all beings be free of suffering and the root of suffering.
May all beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May all beings know and experience peace and deep love that comes from within.
May all beings' lives be of benefit to the world.
May all beings learn how to surrender to and be deeply in the present moment, where life occurs.
May all beings be at ease, no matter what the outer circumstances are.
May all beings be cradled in the arms of lovingkindness and compassion and forgiveness and be able to tap into that feeling of being held at any time.
May all beings love and be loved in this life.

Namaste.

And, this being Valentine's Day, here are a few from my archives that have something to do with love, hearts, compassion... stuff like that. A little finale, of sorts. :)

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #274

Today I made an important decision. After talking with friends, family, and fellow designers and other creatives, I decided that tomorrow will be the last of my Daily Hand Generated Type Phrases. Even though my goal was to do one a day for a year, at this point I think I've gotten what I needed to out of creating these designs with such regular frequency. I have gotten really fast at working in Illustrator; I have proven to myself that I can come up with an idea and create a lettering design from start to finish in a matter of hours; I have learned a lot about many aspects of creating hand generated type on the computer; my letter forms as well as the occasional flourish have gotten pretty good—sometimes really good, I think. The kinds of things I want to do and learn about now are going to take more than a few hours, and so it only makes sense to revise my goal of one design per day to one per week. That way, I'll be able to work longer and really try some new things with each design. I want to work through Jessica Hische's book, In Progress, and try to create phrases using her techniques. I want to have more time to research and do tutorials. I want to combine work I create with pencil and paper with Photoshop and Illustrator work. I want time to experiment. This is the solution! While I really wanted to keep the promise I made to myself—one a day for one year—I had to let go of that with the realization that it's okay to do so in order to grow and move forward.

The good news is that I'll hopefully be able to spend enough time per piece that I'm really happy with each one; it's not just an exercise in production anymore.

The other piece of good news is that I will be able to find great design, photography, illustration, and other art to post and discuss in this blog format. I find that to be really fun and interesting, and I hope you do as well. That will begin Monday, Feb. 15.

So, here is the second to the last of "Gloria's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrases."

A side note: I really like the song by the band Over the Rhine called "Goodbye (This is Not Goodbye)," so even though I didn't think of it because of the song, thinking of the phrase reminded me of the song, so I listened to it and remembered how much I like it.

I'm posting it here. Give it a listen! Goodbye (This is Not Goodbye)

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #273

I'm continuing to try to add depth and visual interest to my designs. Didn't have time to add shadows, but maybe I'll come back to it later and revise. At least I feel like I'm getting out of the rut in which I was finding myself.

Today's phrase is a lyric line from Fleetwood Mac's song entitled, "Little Lies," and the line makes a nice little phrase with which to work! I've never liked the song all that much—it's okay... but I do like the lyrics, especially that specific line ("Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies").

That is all.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #272

I'm so excited to have been introduced to the work of Lauren Hom, New York based designer/letterer. More about her later...I'm already a day behind in my daily type phrases, so forgive my short blog entry.

Today's phrase took some doing. It is strongly based on Lauren Hom's phrase, "I AM NOT A Workaholic." Check it out: LAUREN HOM. (Thanks, Matt Farrell, for sharing her work with me.)

The depth and shadowing have been things that I've been missing in my designs, and I'm happy to be trying something different!

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #271

I heard someone say something very much like this yesterday or the day before. I can't remember who said it, but it rings so true for me. In fact, for so many painful emotions, the root emotion underneath it all (at least for me) is usually some kind of fear. We usually don't want to experience the fear, so we go to anger, sadness, frustration, or something else in order not to touch our fear. And then there's the fear of fear, which is really crippling. If we can let go of the story line and touch/experience the raw emotions that are there, including the fear, we can begin to accept it and remember that it's only a feeling and that it will pass. The thoughts can come and they can go... we can touch them, say what they are (mentally say, "Thinking, thinking..."), and let them go like touching a bubble with a feather. Come back to what is happening right now, whatever feelings are there... let them be there. Welcome them. Bow to them. Embrace them. Embrace and don't push away fear. We all have fear. It just is the way we are. But we can learn to accept it and not cover it over with other feelings that we may thing are easier. Anger is something we all have as well. It's human. But if we really get in touch with it, I think we usually find fear lurking under there asking for our attention.

I think there's a lot of wisdom in these four little words.

Namaste.

GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #270

Thank you, my wonderful partner Paul Sabuco, for introducing me to this amazingly cool band...and all the other great bands of whom I'm a fan because of you.

I love this song, "Calling Sarah," by Jellyfish from their record "Bellybutton."


Give it a listen: YOUTUBE LINK

Lyrics are posted below.

CALLING SARAH

I know it sounds unfair
She's like a painting standing there
I thank the Heavens up above
For the one that I'm thinking of

Calling Sarah
Crawling back to Sarah
'Cause you're the one

Sometimes it's awful hard to take
The way she takes me all the way
She's delicious beyond compare
I'd love to tell her but instead I stare

Calling Sarah
Crawling back to Sarah
'Cause you're the one

Calling Sarah
Crawling back to Sarah
'Cause you're the one

And when you ask me if I really love you
I can't wait to tell you
And if you ever feel you don't believe me
And don't you trust your feeling

'Cause it'd be so hard to take when you're away
I wouldn't last one day

That's why I'm calling Sarah
Crawling back to Sarah, Sarah

Calling Sarah
(That's why I'm calling)
Crawling next to Sarah

Calling Sarah
(And when you ask me if I really missed you)
(I can't wait to tell you)
Crawling back to
Cause you're the one