Happy Monday inkheads! Anyone who follows my personal social media accounts knows I started the #onething personal creative challenge with my friend Drew Myler in the re:Design Google Plus community. Over the past 5 months or so, numerous artists have joined in the fun of creating for personal fulfillment i.e. making art for art’s sake. We’ve gotten several inky submissions from pen drawings to my promotional poster print, yet no one’s chosen to zero in on CMYK alone.
Enter Christine Alexander.
Anyway, Christine is a certified Print Goddess who’s appeared on this blog before. She instituted a letter writing challenge for National Card and Lettering Writing Month. Although I accepted the terms, I failed to mail a single letter for the month of April! Christine assured me there’s plenty of time to redeem myself, and I’m happy to report that I started working on a special letter for her last night. It’s not just a letter, though. I’m working on a handmade postcard of sorts.
A total print geek and design enthusiast, my new pen pal decided to put her own unique spin on the #onething movement, which is exactly what the movement is about—expression and fulfillment.
Introducing #DreamIn4C
The print social communities already use industry hashtags to communicate with each other as well as the professional design crowd. Popular examples include #PrintWins, #PrintLove, and #PrintChat. Christine added her own new tag to the mix—#DreamIn4C, which comes from her blog title and the fact that apparently 88% of the sighted population dreams in full color. The idea is similar to the #PrintSpotters hashtag from the People of Print in that Christine intends to share photos of awesome print sightings in the real world to share through digital channels. She suggests snapping pictures of anything inky that catches your eye from brilliant movie posters to sweet sticker typography and lovely UV coating. Although you’re not creating the piece itself, your photo of the printspirational work counts as an original contribution, so the images can be part of the #onething stream.
My #DreamIn4C submission
I welcome Christine’s innovation, and I see her tag as a way of opening up one thing to the wider world of artistic enthusiasts. I tried to broader the one thing project’s scope with #MyHoodPics because I thought this would be an easy way for new people to get involved. While the notion of snapping pictures of interesting things in your immediate environment sounded simple to me, in hindsight I see why this would prove difficult for someone who’s not already artistically inclined. In truth, most people ignore their surroundings or at least rarely stop to examine the small details that make for a great photo. Christine’s concept seems more appealing to the average person because we’re all surrounded by print media in the offline world. Surely you’ll be able to find 1 item worth photographing without even straying from your daily routine. For instance, you probably pass by lots of billboards on your commute to work. Those are a form of print advertising, so take a pic and you’re good to go.
Enough talking, let’s start sharing! Here’s my first #DreamIn4C post, a photo of the custom canvas print I gave my mom for Mother’s Day. I took a long exposure landscape photo of the San Fernando Valley way up on the top of Canoga Ave above the 118 freeway in Chatsworth. My mom and I always drive by the area on our way home from her house in Simi Valley. We often admire the view together, so I figured the canvas would remind her of the time we spend together on the weekends.
Did you see an irresistible example of print today? Will you be sharing with the either of these hashtags in the future? Tell me your story in the comments below!