Type Fantastic: A New Creative Habit

I have recently started to feel like a bit of  a creative hermit. It's always the same excuses, lack of time and commitment. But enough is enough! My creative side won't take no for an answer any longer!

To switch creative gears I've decided to start a new creative habit and break through from this creative drought I've been living! 

I've been mulling over a few ideas for a while, but have finally set on a 365 day typography project. When I was a kiddo I'd spend hours writing out my name in hundred of different type fonts. Simply using coloured felt pens on a stack of white A4 paper. I'd do it day in day out.

Soon my friends started asking for their names in their favourite fonts. I even starting selling them for a grand price of 20p a piece (which you know was quite lucrative for a 10 year old, back when Mars bars cost 20p...love sounding like my Mum!)!! 

So I'm going right back to where it all started (and should never have stopped!). I have committed to doing a daily typography exercise. I'm right back there, with a bunch of sharpies from Wilkos and a pad of fresh crisp clean paper! I'll start each day with a new fresh blank canvas. The beauty of this daily exercise it that it should be quick, simple and inexpensive (no extra heavy weight watercolour paper and specialist inks here! Well, not yet... ;).

Let's be honest, I may not end up doing this exactly EVERY day. I may skip a day and then have to catch up. Or I may try and front-load a few at a time. But if it means I sit down at my desk and churn out five typography exercises, then even better! I'll have turned what was intended as a way to carve out time for a five minute task each day into a full half an hour session and I can't think of anything better. Getting started is the toughest bit. In fact, I actually hope it snowballs. Once I've started it's almost harder to stop and drag myself up to bed!

By making this commitment out loud (well writing it here at least!) I feel committed to keeping up this new habit. Sharing the best of the bunch over on Instagram I'm hoping will also help keep me in check! (You can follow along with me here @knickerelasticfantastic). I plan to experiment with lots of different handwritten types and fonts plus a number of different mediums. I'm hoping we'll see a serious uplift in my typography skills over the next 365 days if I keep practicing!! 

Do you keep up a daily creative habit or are you now tempted to do so?! I'd love to hear how it's going as I launch into my personal challenge...