My kinda Type

Typography has always been something that has interested me, not quite sure why but I just find the fonts people use to represent themselves or their brand a really intriguing topic. Like what makes people want to write in capital letters or swirly lettering? What are they trying to say?

This week on my course we went on a mini field trip around Nottingham (well mainly the streets near the city campus), we were given the objective to take photographs of any typography that caught our eye on a range of levels (so up in the air, eye level & down on the ground). Surprisingly when you look around it's shocking just how many different types of type there is- ever since this activity I just can't stop noticing it. I guess that means the task got me brain really thinking about it. 

If you know me well then you'll know that right now I'm having a bit of a yellow obsession... well I think to say to say a bit would be an understatement really. So it's pretty obvious I was gonna be drawn towards these images below. 

It's weird because I've never noticed this tyre shop before yet I've walked down the road it's on so many times. For me this was the best find of the day I'm just obsessed with how it looks- it probably wasn't entirely planned out to look like this but I love the rustic feel to it. I don't know if the owners would allow it but I think it would be a really good shoot location- especially for fashion items. Images against the wooden walls or tyres would be very Instagram worthy. It's worth baring in mind anyway. 

Green or khaki never used to be a colour I was attracted towards simply because despite it looking great on others it's just not a colour I would ever reach to wear. I never would have thought about putting white on green though- definitely something I want to experiment further with in my sketchbook. This font type below makes me think military- maybe that's the green background coming through but the way the numbers have been printed with gaps makes it feel very regimented and formal. Like it's not a casual font- it's bold, in your face and makes you want to almost obey what it's saying. 

Normally when working I tend stick to black or other dark colours as my font colour simply because I think they're the colours that capture people's attention more. Boy how wrong I was. Bright colours such as red and pink or even yellow (sorry) with black make a eye catching combination worthy of a little mention. I think when it comes round to creating my business cards as part of the self promotion   project later on this semester I want to try and not use black font just because I feel it's very standard and business cards need to represent you as a person- a standard font colour doesn't represent me. 

I know we're on the topic of type but I want to quickly talk about illustrations, I have been always been a creative person, there was time back in high school where I wanted to become an illustrator. Over recent years though I kinda lost sight of my passion for it, this year I want to get back to doing more of it- I'm going to try and set myself the task of doing 3/4 quick illustrations a week drawing everything and anything that grabs my attention. 

The irony of Peel Street peeling away *haha

Hope you've enjoyed this post. 

What are your thoughts on typography? Is it something you notice?

Surely you must have thought about it at some point simply because it's all around us- it's unlikely you won't come across any form of typography every day of your lives. Even your phone font has been carefully considered...

Take Care & I'll see you all soon.

X

Image Credit: Own.

Better the second time round

Welcome back!

Second year is now is full flow again, I've got 3 briefs to complete, numerous sketchbooks and a whole lot of catching up to do. Summer was fab don't get me wrong but it feels great to be back in a routine again- I've even been managing to keep up with my gym schedule although I did skip it today to write this but let's not think about that. 

Honestly I think I forgot how much I loved being at uni over the summer- obviously I do miss home home but right now Nottingham feels the right place to be. Although if my dog could become the 7th member of our house then that would be the cherry on top of the cake.

So far second year in my opinion couldn't get any better- I love living in our house which is approximately 8 minutes from the main campus (dreams do come true), the suspected ghost seems to have vanished and just generally I feel so happy right now. Definitely feel I choose the right people to live with, I know people who fell out with their housemates barely even a week in so I'm SO glad that not us- we're just one happy little uni family.

Not gonna lie the clubbing scene doesn't quite feel the same, maybe because I'm old lol & am starting to get over the effort that goes into going out clubbing. Kinda want to try more bars this year but nevertheless I still enjoy a good old SU night out. Although an hour and a half queue for Ocean to not even get in is not the one for me. 

Course wise I've fallen back in love with what I signed up for. I feel motivated, excited and just generally a lot more interested than I was last year. Having been given the briefs for the first part of second year I'm super looking forward to working with new people, try new things and overcoming new challenges. It's only two weeks in and I've already overcome probably my biggest fear: approaching people in the street to interview. I'd like to think I'm a friendly, approachable person but the thought of going up to someone and asking about their style is one scary prospect. Still somehow on a recent field trip to London I over came it and actually it wasn't as scary as I thought- even more surprising but I actually found myself enjoying chatting to people. 

So you could say that life feels good right now. I don't what it is but I just feel in a good place. Feel like this year is going to be a good year even if I did start it off dropping my phone down the toilet resulting in me having to pay £350 back to my dad but even that can't shadow my mood right now (Well maybe it can a little).

Blog wise I am really gonna try to keep to a schedule which will be hard especially now it's no longer a requirement of my course (probably the second most heartbreaking thing I've heard since being back after my phone of course). My days off are Monday & Wednesday so I think posts on Monday & another day in the week will be achievable- I haven't decided if that day should be Thursday or Friday yet.

Before I go...

As of today I now have a creative instagram account: fash10n_lyfe 

I still have my personal one but this one will be everything fashion & FCP based, it's kinda a requirement for this year but if you fancy seeing more of what I do then give it a little follow.

What's been going on in your lives?

Take care & I'll see you all very soon.

X

Image credit: Own

Ambitions N Dreams

In life even if you don't say you do, we ALL have ambitions and dreams, whether we know where we want to be next week or in 5 years, big or small we all have our own ambitions. 5 years time sounds like a long way off but in reality everything your doing at this moment in time will influence where you are likely to be in the future.
Not to like scare you or anything... 

I have always been an ambitious person, maybe slightly too ambitious sometimes. But I really do believe in the saying 'if you can dream it, you can do it', I wouldn't say I live my life by that saying or anything but it is something that sticks with me everyday. Growing up though dreams change, pretty much every person I know dreamt of being a singer or a vet at some point of their childhood... but as you grow your dreams alter and grow too. Maybe you've given up on that dream of being a world famous singer or maybe you don't want to be a vet anymore but the thought of having a house full of dogs is still very appealing (it is for me anyway).

I would say some of my dreams have change but some still haven't. I still believe in myself that I can make my first million- maybe not by the time I'm 21 like I've always dreamed of but it's still something I want to achieve. Sometimes we've got to be a bit flexible with our dreams because dreams don't work quite the same way in reality. For starters there are a lot more bumps in the road, whilst some people may dread these 'bumps', I am a strong believer in everything happens for a reason, people walk in and walk out of your life for a reason. It's all meant to be. Whilst some of you reading this may find that quite a naive way of looking at life but that's just how I do look at it. I saw a tweet this morning which I guess is what inspired me to write this post, it said something along the lines of 'if someone's meant to be in your life then they will come back into it, if they don't then they weren't meant to be in it to begin with'. 

I want people to share their dreams more with people because we really should support each other, no dream is ever unachievable. We only stop believing in ourselves not our dreams. 

Personally I have three big dreams in life: one to move to another country- growing up this country was always America and it probably still is, it sounds kinda stupid but I do really believe America is somewhere I'm meant to live. Secondly maybe over optimistic but I really want this blog to go far- maybe into even YouTube, I know there are so many bloggers out there but this blog for me is my biggest achievement. Finally, this is a dream I haven't shared with many people but I really want to build my own business, the thought of working for other people just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not saying working for other people isn't something I won't do but ultimately I want to be my own boss, I want to work for myself with a team of people who all see themselves as equal to one another. Perhaps most importantly I want to see the world whilst doing all of this. That for me is my biggest dream, I want to be able to say I've visited that place or I've worked in that community, I just want to experience the adventure of learning to love when you don't have much .
(lol that's me as a student really) 

I know this wasn't a very long post today but I really hope it gave you some 'food for thought', as second year approaches it feels at times like the future is coming quick and fast sometimes it just helps to say out loud what it is exactly you want to achieve. Saying it sometimes is all the motivation you need and hey if you don't achieve the full dream then it's better to achieve half a dream then to give up before you've even tried. You will never hear someone say 'I regret trying that'- you won't know until you've tried it after all.

See you all soon.

X

Image credit: Google 

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Music Feels

Just a quick post on some tunes I have been playing non stop recently. 

I never use to be a massive fan of music (I know weird right?) like fair enough i listened to what I liked but it didn't ever give me the feels you get from playing music. Summer has got me l o v i n g it, like I actually think the sound of silence scares me now! Whenever there isn't any tv on, my music goes straight on. I can't bare to be without it, I think ever since I got some new headphones and a speaker for my birthday back in July, I have been obsessed! 

Don't be so hard on yourself Jess Glynne.
Okay I have to admit I know this song has been around a few years now but come on even you've got to admit it's a tune! At the start of summer I had my music on shuffle and this came on- I have been loving it ever since... It's just such a good, Summer vibes tune! And the lyrics are pretty right too, because we should all stop being so hard on ourselves, life has enough tough times on it's own- you are in charge of your own happiness so make it happen.

Ego Ella Eyre.

When this song came out I tweeted just how obsessed I was with it and Ella Eyre actually favourited MY tweet!!!! OMG I majorly fangirled, I can't even deny it. Ella Eyre is one of my most favourites female artist's, I just love her, I love her style and most importantly I love her music. Honestly I don't think there's been a song that she's done, that I don't like- not a single song! If you haven't heard it yet then pls give it a listen because this was my song of the Summer.

Bad at love Halsey. 

I like this song ironically partly because I am bad at love so lol it really means something to me. But I do really love this song- Halsey was of the artists I saw a Reading and honestly I have been loving her ever since. I am slightly shocked by the fact she's my age and can sing this well! I don't know what it is about her music, normally I wouldn't have thought it's my style but lately I just can't get enough of it.

Strange Love Halsey. 

Yes another Halsey song, what can I say? I probably shouldn't like a song for this reason but I do really love the album cover, it's very vintage but I like it. Strange Love is probably my favourite song of hers, just because it feels so 'real'- I can't really explain it but listening to this song makes me feel vibes I've never felt before. When I listen to it with my eyes closed, it takes me right back to Reading every time, so I know it's going to hold a special place in my heart for a long time to come.

Reggaeton Lento Little Mix.
This really was this Summer of Spanish music and I LOVED it! When Despacito came out a few months back I fell in love the second I heard it but personally I think I slightly over played it because now it feels too basic, don't get me wrong I still like the song just not as much as I did. lol I saw this tweet saying 'I don't know what gets played more me or despacito'... don't worry I could relate too. When Little Mix announced Reggaeton Lento (yes I struggle to spell it too) I was over the moon! I love Little Mix and Spanish music so combined it was hawttttt!

I know this has been a different type of post today, it's just music has been a massive part of Summer this year and felt I needed to blog about it. I'm so happy my blogging schedule is staying on track, the key? Blog in advance always- I was thinking about doing a blogging tips post over the next few weeks. Let me know if that's something you'd like to see. Back to uni means they'll probably be more fashion/ FCP posts than lifestyle & beauty but I am going to try to keep a balance between them all.

Just realised it's all female artists above- no shade to male artists or anything. I have loads of male artists I love to listen to but for me the girls have been killing the game lately. 

Hope you enjoyed the post.
What's been your song of the Summer?
Let me know in the comments below.

X

Photo Credit: Google.