London Letterheads Meet

I had my first experience attending the big Letterheads Meet this August, which is basically where signwriters from all over the world meet and have a complete geekfest. With London hosting this year’s meet-up, it was a no-brainer for me to go. I have to say, I was completely overwhelmed and humbled to be among the greats under the one roof, watching and learning all their tricks of their trade - that’s what i love about this field, you can never stop learning!! There’s so much passion in these guys, that it left me completely inspired to keep going and exploring more with the brush. And most importantly to learn to be confident in yourself to keep producing great work.

What an epic four days being part of an amazing community and to meet some seriously awesome people I’m now lucky to call friends. I’m really looking forward to the next one but in the meantime here’s a little glimpse into the event, including the piece i designed for the auction.

And here’s the piece I did. I was so intimidated at first - I’m so used to working in my quiet studio with only a few folk around, the thought of painting with SO many people around you (incredibly talented ones too!) was daunting. I actually put it off until the second last day by which point i loosened up a bit and had some encouragement from the other great signwriters that I decided to go for it. I kept it minimal but interesting and delighted it was bought by a fellow sign-writer from Japan!

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

FROM SKETCH TO SIGNAGE

Have you ever wondered how signs and murals are initially generated? They start from blank drawing board; be it on a sheet of paper or on a digital screen, the ideas for type forms and type locks all start as sketches. 

After numerous tweaks and refining, the final design is then selected to create the stencil that enables the transferring of the graphic onto your chosen surface, at the scale required; from small scale signs to large scale murals. 

This is probably the most challenging phase of the design journey but one that allows you to experiment and play to create endless typographic possibilities. And once you have it nailed, then the fun part of painting begins!

If you'd like to learn this creative process, i'm looking to run a one day intense crash course that would enable you to learn the basic skills of lettering and then transforming it from sketch to signage. I will post those listings as soon as I've worked out the content and dates so do keep your eyes peeled for it!

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

'FOREVER HANDMADE' SIGN FOR NEW CRAFT HOUSE

Bespoke signage piece made for New Craft House, at their brand new studio space in Hackney. The creative duo wanted to incorporate their slogan "forever handmade" into a signature signage piece that they could have inside, using their brand colours.

After a few design sketches, exploring various type locks, from script to gothic, the design you see here was picked and hand-painted. 

The large piece at 150x100cm took 3days to design and produce. 

Here's a screen grab of the lovely Instagram story the girls shared on their account, to give you a little glimpse of the piece in-situ! I'll update the 'Miscellaneous Hand-painted Signs' project tab with final images!  

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

#HERETOCREATE SIGN-MAKING WORKSHOP AT ADIDAS LONDON

This day last week, I ran my first biggest workshop to date! Adidas London invited me to run a short 'lettering & sign-making' workshop at their fitness studio in Brick Lane for their members as part of their initiative of bridging fitness, lifestyle and well-being .

Being a women-only studio, they wanted the workshop to incorporate mantras that epitomised female empowerment so I went on to create various typographic designs using both their mantras and a couple of my own with the view that these would then be motivational signs the girls would get to keep. I thought it'd be a nice little reminder of their creative session and most importantly, what they can achieve when they push their limits! 

With only a 1.5hours time period it meant that all the boards, in this instance, were prepped and drawn out by me prior to the class. This is something I usually get my students to do as part of the workshop structure but with a shorter timeframe, it logistically made sense have this part already prepared so that the girls could get more time to paint. The designs I made to use as stencils provided all the attendees the perfect base/starting point to paint from and a quick introduction to various lettering styles and colour ways,  they were encouraged to add their own flair and detail to their sign.

I have to admit I was anxious about it as I normally cap my workshops to 8-10 people (12/15 max if anything!) and have at least a minimum of 3hours but much to my relief and delight, it all worked out brilliantly in the end! I'm always amazed at how creative folk can be having never painted before and without question, leave buzzing with inspiration! 

A big thanks to @adidaslondon for hosting my taster lettering & sign-making workshop and to all the ladies who did a bloody great job this evening getting their paint on! 

If you'd like to host one of my workshops do feel free to drop me a line!!

Ps. Here’s a small recap of my night:

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

"YOU'RE SO MY TYPE" SOLO EXHIBITION AT DRINK, SHOP, DO

I can't quite believe this project is done and dusted, now full view to all the public. If you haven't already seen snippets from my Instagram and Twitter feed, then this is something special I've been working on for a solo exhibit. My first one! 

It was important to explore something unique for this show and so having had the desire to do some 3D type for a while, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to do so.....and to go big! 

My idea was to create something show-stopping, combining my love for 3D model-making and lettering techniques and craftsmanship together. And so I sketched out my type lock where each letter of the composition was of a different style. I wanted the over all piece to be dramatic as well as creatively challenging design and construct.

Below are two time-lapse videos of the installation; the first one was the initial set up being suspended solely from the ceiling and the second is where we rejig it after the launch night by mounting it to the wall for a more secure fixture (just to avoid kids or tipsy folk swinging off them over the 6months!) 

And this is what it looks like in situ. For more images of the exhibit, hop over to the projects tab here. 

Exhibition is on from March 01st to August 30th 2018 so do drop by and take a look. And if you take photos and share them, please tag me @molu_designs so it makes my day! :)

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

FIRST ROUND OF WORKSHOPS FOR 2018

I had my first set of 2018 workshops take place last month and it was a ball of fun. I still can't believe it's taken me over a year to get round to getting it finally organised but hey, better late than never!

The workshops take place over the weekends at our lovely and bright co-working studio space in East London - boy am I grateful to finally have the perfect studio space to host it in. Makes such a difference when you can run them in the comforts of your own space with all the materials etc to hand.  So, I guess all that hard graft and DIY back in winter 2016/2017 totally paid off!

That said, the second one was held at an external venue! I decided it made sense to do the odd one intermitently at a different place as it can be always useful from a marketing point of view.

This one was held at Mercato Metropoliano in Elephant & Castle - a once disused paper factory, it is now home to a large food market with an array of artisan street food (If you're a foodie it's definitely a MUST-DO place!) My workshop coincided with Crafty Fox Market to create an incredibly brilliant market vibe and i had the best time with my participants, including my very first young lettering artist in the making! You can find some more photos of that day here. 

IMAGE CREDIT :  Design Curator / Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

WINDOW GRAPHICS FOR RENEGADE CRAFT FAIR, LONDON

This was a dream come true, working with Renegade Craft Fair at their London market. These guys are one of America's largest craft fairs and so to be able to create their entrance window graphics was just insane. 

Using their branding as reference, the idea behind the graphics was simply to make it eye-catching as possible from street level. This was important considering the venue and its location; on Brick Lane with a large footfall. 

The timeframe was tight so it was impressive that the turnaround was quick. Bearing that in mind, I opted to white wash the entire window and then etch into it the design we agreed on. 

Here's what how it all came about. For more project images, click here.

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]

I've been meaning to do this for some time and so here it is! Being a start-up and a small independent business myself, I fully understand the constraints that come with having tight budgets yet you want to invest and do things properly so that your business stands out. 

So i've introduced budget-friendly market signage for indie businesses trading at markets and events so that their brand identity stands out nicely. You can't beat hand-painted signs that reflect the whole ethos behind the hand-crafted artisanal essence behind these businesses. Vinyl just doesn't cut it! Not being biased but it really doesn't! 

Anyway, if you or anyone you know that might be interested in this, take a look at the three standard sizes I'm offering at a flat rate in my SHOP section. 

IMAGE CREDIT : Molu Designs
[All rights reserved ©MoluDesigns]