After releasing a book on hand lettering (entitled The ABCs of Hand Lettering) last June (published under Summit Books),
I was contacted by IFEX, a specialty paper company in the Philippines, to come up with a branded "Abbey Sy" sketch pad suitable specifically for hand lettering. The company carries a variety of paper brands and art materials, and for this, they wanted to use Canson papers for high grade quality watercolor paper.
While my initial attempt was to just hand letter an inspiring quote for the cover, I decided to turn it into something more valuable and putting a brand on it. With the help of one of my mentors, we secured the idea of turning it into a "progress keeper",
since the overall goal of this project was to design a hand lettering pad that would inspire others to pick up their pens and paint brushes, create, and keep track of their progress at that.
Font style and layout studies
After creating a strategy document and aligning with the product goals & objectives, I searched for pegs that resembled those of vintage book covers that had a modern twist to it - and I applied it to the design.
I wanted to keep the design as organic as possible, which is why I opted to hand letter and illustrate it traditionally.
Initial sketches sent to client for approval
After sketching, I came up with two studies (below). I also played around my default favorite teal / orange color schemes. The borders and font styles are used are reminiscent of retro-style artwork, which I'm particularly drawn to.
Client chose the one on the left, so I recreated it and made it more complete and concise. I made the sky blue more vibrant and leaned towards a richer blue in order to adjust for printing. Some elements had to be tweaked as well and I added my brand name on the bottom, instead of "Know Your ABCs". Colors were rendered digitally via Adobe Photoshop.
Below is the final product. The size is what I use for painting - 7 x 10 inches, and it's compact enough for every day use.
The Lettering Progress Keeper is a way for you to practice, maintain the habit of creating, and keep track of your progress. Made with fine quality artist paper (Canson 200GSM, suitable for ink & watercolor), this pad is perfect for drafts or final outputs. It’s available at all National Bookstore branches in the Philippines and retails at PHP199.75.
Special thanks to IFEX Philippines for making this possible and to Jaykee Evangelista for guiding me through this project!
Thank you for viewing! :)
