Welcome to my new website; I've updated it to reflect my lettering focus. I will be blogging about my journey in creating a creative business. Be on the lookout for some practical tips if you're a creative professional. I will also write about things I think are worth sharing, like books, music, films, and art (but most of this through my newsletter).

Looking back

Back in 2015, I wanted to focus more on lettering, but due to getting a clinical depression I had to put it on hold in late 2015. After concentrating on recovery in 2016 & 2017, I finally had the foundation to put my mind back on lettering again in 2018.

I've created a portfolio with recent work. Looking back, I’ve done some cool projects, and I now got the confidence to call myself a lettering artist. Although there’s plenty left to learn, and I'm still in the process of finding my voice. But like Austin Kleon says: "You find your voice by joining the choir."

I did a few personal lettering pieces, and participated in creative challenges, like the weekly HOMwork & Goodtype Tuesday. Those were fun challenges to do and trained my creative muscle.

In Oktober, I participated in the annual Inktober challenge. It was challenging to show up every day and post something new every day. But because I did it in the morning before my day job and had limited time it forced me not to be too critical and perfectionistic. Done is better than perfect. And doing it in the early morning also helps, because your mind is still starting and interfering less.

At the end of the year, I did some projects for others. I created the lettering for a birthday calendar by Ceryan Raissa. For every month in the calendar, I created the title fitting with the illustration of an animal for the corresponding month. I had to do it in a short period, and she was delighted with the result; she found them fitting just right.

Plus I made my first mural. It's not a large mural but with a lot of detail. I painted it on a wall at the home of someone who follows me on Instagram. He wanted something different than a regular painting and afterwards said I had done a beautiful job.

On a more personal note, last year I went on a cycling holiday where I’ve cycled around the former Zuiderzee in the Netherlands which I loved. Plus I’ve run my first half marathon under two hours, and some months later I went under the 1:50 mark.

Moving forward

Intention

Because of some personal stuff, I didn’t have as much time for lettering as I wanted last year. Plus sometimes I suffered from a lack of focus. But still, I can look back positively at all the work I did manage to do while working a day job.

This year I want to improve on this output. Of course, you can’t control everything. My intention for this year is intentionality (meta, I know). To plan more, decide what I want to do, what I say no to and why. Be more mindful. Become more productive due to being more focused on what matters.

An expectation sets you up for disappointment, but an intention sets you up for success.

Do you have an intention or word set for this year?

Goals

This year I want to:

• Do more lettering projects.
• Start a passion project.
• Learn more about lettering.
• Blog regularly.
• Send a weekly newsletter.
• Read more (at least 10 books).
• Write more (I’m currently doing a challenge where I write 20 minutes each morning for 30 days).

Of course, all of this shouldn't go at the expense of my mental health. So my primary goal is to keep my habits in place to be able to do this for a long time. For example, I will keep on running, as well as practising yoga; both are so good for me, physically as well as mentally. I’m currently training to run a half marathon under 1:40.

Do you have goals set for this year?