Why Do I Torture Myself and Design Products?

It’s been a long time since I have written my thoughts down in this space, honestly for two years there was not much to write about staring out the window and being confined. However, in this moment, May 2022, it feels hopeful for normalcy to return, so I try to get back to normal things, like contributing to this blog!

Product Design Is Hard …

Over these 8 years along with my hand lettered commissions, writing a book, creating an art exhibit and soon launching an online course, through it all I have always had an online shop and designed things to fill that shop. Let me tell you by far, the time and dedication of product design is the hardest job of them all.

From conception, to prototypes, to packaging, photographing, marketing, and listing, blasting it on all channels of social media and sometimes dumping a big chunk of investment into the product that I have no idea if it will even sell. In an artists mind like mine, everything seems awesome and a good idea. But let me tell you, I have had flops for sure, and stock that doesn’t move and it’s depressing to throw it out, and depressing to keep it. And yet, year after year I continue to semi-torture myself by designing new stationery and tools and you really have to wonder why….?

The Reason Why I Design…

Like everything else in my life, it’s a calling. My world of lettering began with paper, passing notes in class, these secret treasures between friends that became real letter writing as I grew older, decorating the outside of the envelopes to bring delight to the recipient. Now days I design for two reasons:
1. I feel like there is a void in the market, I design things I want and need.
2. I think I am witty and my head/ego needs to show off how crazy it is with it’s designs and lettering, essentially it needs to release it’s creativity.

Above are examples of things I wanted but could not find. Line Template , a quick and easy way to draw lines without measuring! I was lettering a lot of place cards and envelopes that year and figure it was easier to just plop it down and draw guidelines immediately that could be erased after. I also created the template in this plaque shape so I could use it to create a pretty decorative box too without hassle! Wearable Words were designed because I wanted to add a bit of shine to accessorize my bag, coat and pencil case. There were tons of cute enamel pins, but I wanted to create something that described the individual wearing it and words always do that perfectly. The Type Reference Rulers were designed to fill a void of two things, 1. a handy tool that has unique fonts/typefaces on them for reference and the obvious ruler functions; 2. a pretty item to add to stationery flat lay photos! I love pairing this design on a wood ruler, because wood feels vintage, and I love that feel of mixing modern and vintage. Lastly Posecards the one and only photo prop greetings / stylized photo props that have their own website! When my sister got married I really didn’t want her to have those clown wigs and glasses and dollar store items so I took matters into my own hands and designed a whole set of stylized props just for them. That purpose has led to a whole other company that focuses solely on the big and small moments we all take photos.

These items above are the latter… designed purely for joy and love of lettering and stationery. As a hand letterer and calligrapher, the surface of what we letter on is important. Sure a white tented card does the trick, but it really has no personality or tells no story. You can use the word “classic” but for me the place card is a moment to tell a story, a tiny detail that adds magic to your event. That is why I designed this Museum Collection of love notes that can be doubled as place cards or gift tags as well. Even a simply wrapped gift can be elevated with a beautiful card and meticulous lettering. My greeting cards and mailers just bring the child out of me again. Although I work in a super fancy industry, I cannot ignore my core child artist who simply loved writing cards and letters. All these parts are a part of me as an artist, so I continue to put myself out into the world, even if it’s such hard work and torturous at times. This is part of what being an artist is. Hard work and being true to your calling. Until next time friends! Hopefully not too long!

Bottled Feelings - The Exhibition

This is the 5th year Love Lettering has been in business, as as the owner, creative director, and artist behind every piece of work that comes out of the studio, I cannot say how proud and grateful I am to have had so many of you include me in your most special moments in your lives, trust me with branding your company and come to my workshops and watched my videos to learn from me. Every moment I get to letter and share what I know makes me feel truly thankful. Along with being our 5th year in business, I’ve turned 40 years old. Now when I was young I thought that 40 was ancient, I thought at 40, one should have everything figured out, however I realized that growth, progress and transformation every year is required for me to feel fulfilled. I think it comes from being creative, I accept that I have a passion for lettering and will continue to strive to see how else I can use that passion to open new doors and pursue new adventures… and thats where this exhibit comes in.

Our FIRST Gallery Show…

Bottled feelings stems from a feeling in my heart from a young age…”I know I’m meant to do more”… back then I didn’t know what that MORE was, and I never told a soul what I felt for the fear that I could never produce that MORE that I spoke of. Telling people you are meant to DO more, requires you to actually DO it, and did I have the guts to follow through? Did I have the talent, drive, persistence, to create the more I felt?

I thought when I created Love Lettering, that was the more. I thought that when I released the book, perhaps that was the more. I realized I still feel like there is more in me to give and show the world with the love of hand lettering and what I can do with it.

It also our first Kickstarter campaign…! I decided to pursue this route because Kickstarter is a creative crowd funding platform that supports artists and new ideas. Backers on this platform want to see and support new products and exhibits that are innovative and I wanted to see if this concept and exhibit would be well received.

You can be a part of my first exhibition experience in so many ways, some don’t even involve money:

1. Take a look at my Kickstarter campaign and support if you can! I have some great rewards and a video that describes my idea and concept in full.

2. Submit your own “Bottled Feeling” this is a totally collaborative exhibit where I will take the submitted feelings and hand letter them onto glass bottles… will yours make the show? All entries will be anonymous (submissions have been closed August 31, 2019).

3. Share my story and my campaign! The more people that hear about it, the more likely I will receive the funding to create this exhibit, so if this is something you want to see happen, please share.

4. If the project is funded, please visit the exhibition! It will be free admission for all guests.

Am I scared? Absolutely. Will I fail? Its very possible. Do I kind of want to vomit? Yes, I do.

Does it mean I won’t pursue it? Hard NO. All the outcomes and feelings I have will never compare to the regret I will feel if I never tried to show the world (or at least Toronto) what is possible when I combine our bottled feelings with the art of lettering. Come take this journey with me. Thanks for reading!

Ask Me Anything! Lets Talk Lettering, Tools, Building a Creative Business... and being a Mom too!

Ask Me Anything ... Open Book Right Here!

I find it super difficult to feel motivated to write on the blog regularly when work, dishes AND laundry keeps on piling up all around me, but I have so many people ask me questions and I find myself answering a lot of the same ones repetitively so I think for the blog I will create a series called “Ask Me Anything” in which I will reply in all honesty with what I know, how I feel about…what I use for ...etc…!  So please send me any questions about lettering, tools, methods, work/life balance, being a mom, and I will give you my point of view on these things on my blog. So I will collect questions via email, Instagram, Facebook and on the 15th of each month I will answer a question or two depending on how long it takes me to write the answers!  I hope that you find these entries informative, interesting, and interactive… these are just my thoughts and ideas as an artist, author, mom and business owner of Love Lettering…so lets begin!

The million dollar question:  What do you charge for X? Y? Z?

I get this question all the time from clients asking for quotes, and then ALSO from fellow artists and letterers as well that are starting a lettering business or have been in the business for a while and want to know what my rate is for calligraphy and hand lettering pricing, and my answer is this…  its really PERSONAL!

Now I know that sounds like I’m saying, its none of your business BUT in fact I don’t mean it in that way at all… I mean pricing should be very personal to every artist, illustrator, designer, stylist, planner, photographer, the list goes on and on but the answer is the only person you have to make sure is happy is yourself.  

A little background about me and Love Lettering...

I have really lettered for as long as I remember, since I was in grade school, drawing bubble letters, in high school lettering in typewriter fonts for my yearbook entries, so when I started at OCADU it was not a big surprise that I took my art/illustration seriously.  After I graduated I took a job teaching art in Hong Kong, which included teaching lettering as well and I pretty much knew that it was what I was meant to do… lettering.  So in 2014, I started Love Lettering and I can honestly say I have dedicated no less than 20000 hours to my craft and business within these 4 years and I have published a book about my work methods and tools, I have not included the hours before I started my company, and I am 39 years old… so my question is… how much is my time and skill of lettering/illustration worth?  How much is my creativity and ability to choose the right fonts for the right theme, the ability to draw buildings, flowers and places and laying out love stories worth?  It is whatever I think and feel it is worth at this moment in my life.  See? Very personal because of all the steps that have brought me to this point in my business and life allow me to feel confident in my pricing for lettering. 

Why the huge price differences when it comes to one letterer to another?

When it comes to lettering pricing, why do some people charge so much more and some people charge so much less? There are so many factors involved, businesses with websites, offices, accountants, assistants may charge more because there are overhead expenses are also more, but in the end it is still a personal thing to each artist.

When you ask this question, you have to consider YOURSELF,  how much time have you dedicated to your craft?  How long will it take you to create said signage?  Have you done it before? What type of expenses do you have?

Keep this in mind, there will always be clients that can pay way more than what you are quoting, and there will be clients where your pricing just doesn’t fit into their budget, its not your job to FIT into anyones/everyones budget, but it IS your job to make sure you are getting paid properly for your service and your time to make sure your business can run properly and smoothly. 

Final Thoughts...

When in doubt, there is always the internet to tell you what the “guidelines” to pricing is for calligraphy/lettering etc… but if you are striving to be a business that is in it for the long haul, you must not sell yourself short, you must provide GOOD work and service, and you must establish the confidence to know your worth, and that is really personal. 

Hope this entry has been helpful… until the next time, Happy Lettering, Doris

Extraordinary Hand Lettering has arrived....!

On November 7th, 2017 my book Extraordinary Hand Lettering was finally released, and with that was an overwhelming amount of gratitude and tears for all the people who opened their arms and hearts to my first book.  

Its really hard to imagine that 3 years ago, I was in quite a dark and stormy time in my life, Melody was almost 3 and in that moment I thought that I would try, try, try to live my life authentically by dedicating my life to 2 things that I would never regret or let me down, being a full time mom, and a full time artist/business.  Making that decision would be lead me to the most creative and amazing years of my life so far.  It has been hard, I have learned a lot, I have met some incredible people along the way, and now I have become an author.

I hope that this book will be loved for its beauty along with its inspiration, I always design and create things for myself if mind, in this case I had to view it from the maker side, and the reader side, so I hope I have fulfilled my task.  Below you will find a video by the amazing HenjoFilms who shot this process video of one of our shoots from the book, it really captures how everything started and what I want the book to encompass... Hope you enjoy!

The making of this book was no small feat, and I cannot express HOW thankful I am to the amazing team that worked on this mountain of a project, it would not have been possible to achieve anything so lovely without the following creatives:

Head Stylist & Planner - Annie Tu from Madison and Ella

Photography - Janet Kwan from Janet Kwan Photography , Heidi Lau from Heidi Lau Photography, Katie Thompson from K.Thompson Photography

Cakes & Desserts - Caitlin Elaine from Cakelaine

Videography - Henry & Joanie from HenjoFilms

Creative Styling Consultants - Kathie Barone from Southern Charm Vintage Rentals, Lorrie Everitt from Creative Bag

Florists - Jess McKewan from Periwinkle Flowers, Tellie Hunt from Hunt & Gather

Welcome

As the last of the warm days are amongst us, it reminds me that the year is almost wrapping up and it’s just a shame that I have not written more on the blog, but trust me I have been busy with the book, lettering, and life essentially.

Year after year I promise myself that I would try to find balance between being a mom and wife and a business owner and entrepreneur, and I am boldly stating that I have NOT been successful in finding the happy medium…. and I cannot figure out why.

Is it because I am a workaholic and cannot say no? Am I not organized enough when it comes to allocating personal time to myself? Do I have too many ideas and want to fulfill all of them?  And if that is the case, WHY? What am I chasing? Sometimes I do feel burnt out but it doesn’t discourage me from waking up the next day and doing it again for another 18 hours.

I love my life, everyday I feel so lucky to have a god given talent that I use to make people happy, make a living for myself, and also helps me make new friends! But turning this talent into a business has been more than meets the Instagram eye…it takes long hours, really good organization skills, being able to NOT procrastinate and it takes guts.

When you start a business, you have to leave your fear of being judged, lose your fear of meeting new people and telling people what you do. If you have the talent, the determination and fearlessness then all there is left to do is to TELL people what you are capable of and what you can offer… and what I have found is that people will find ways to put your talent to good use.

I have learned a lot of lessons along the way since the business opened in 2014 and I hope to always be a student of life… you will not find me stagnant, I hope to always be evolving and taking my lettering and the business to the next level…coming up is the release of my book, Extraordinary Hand Lettering, may it open more creative doors for me and the business, and from there the balancing act changes again!

Please follow my favourite social media channel, Instagram (@lovelettering_doriswai). Unlike my blog, I do post there regularly and I do unload a lot of tips and tricks about my lettering and thoughts.

Until the next post… Happy Lettering!