Chris Blog: December 2012

Twelve Days of Christmas (update)

Here are all 12 parts of the Twelve Day of Christmas lettering project. Looking forward to more lettering practice in the new year!

The end

Or not? Have a wonderful weekend, and a happy holiday!

CR

Alphabet 100 update: the final stretch

Here are the next four lower case letters to the Alphabet 100 project. This is exciting for 2 reasons:

only 2 letters remaining – lower case y and lower case z
lower case x marked letter #50, which means I have officially sketched 5000 letters so far!

Be sure to check out all the sketches over here.

I am please to finally reveal these two new map prints, available for purchase in my online shop.

It all started back in the spring when I was trying to find a simple way to illustrate the best parts of my favourite city: Toronto. After plenty of research, many lists, lots of sketches and several layout ideas, I arrived at a solution. And then after a trip to Montréal this summer (my second favourite city!), I decided to use the same template, and apply everything I love about downtown Montréal (in French, of course).

These 18" x 18" map prints are ink jet printed in Toronto in full colour on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper.

Special thanks to everyone who helped me out with one, especially Raymond at Front Print, and Lucie who helped with the translations and copy editing on the Montréal map.

Love your city? Need a last-minute Christmas gift? Stop by my shop and pick one up. And thanks in advance for your support!

p.s. Canada Post suggested mailing dates here.

Marcus

Here is a little memento I created for Marcus, who turns one year old today.
Happy Birthday, Marcus!

Twelve Days of Christmas

December, 12, 2012, or 12/12/12, will be the last date of its kind – when all three numerals in a date are the same – for the next 88 years. The next time this will happen is on January 1, 2101, or 01/01/01.

Although there are many notable twelves, one of the most famous (and festive!) is the Twelve Days of Christmas. To celebrate the holiday season, and to commemorate this cosmic event, I've decided to start a small lettering project. For the next 12 days leading up to Christmas, I will be lettering the lyrics to the Twelve Days of Christmas, and posting the results on Instagram and Twitter. If you're not already following me, please join in the fun! You can find me at:

Twitter: @Chris_Rouleau
Instagram: chris_rouleau

Watch for the first installment tomorrow!

Fun with chalk!

A little chalk lettering I did for snap+tumble at City of Craft this weekend. Thanks again to Tanya for the opportunity! Another shot of the original rendering below, and more photos here.

Light

A new poster for Music in the Barns Chamber Ensemble's Light, an "exploration of our relationship to light through composition and scientific imagery". Be sure to check it out this weekend:

Saturday, December 8
Artscape Wychwood Barns

Get your tickets here!

She's coming...

Teaser postcards for breathe.feel.love's upcoming production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Poster design here.

Toronto Etiquette Project, one year later

December 1st marks one year since I launched the Toronto Etiquette Project.

So what has happened since then?

First, some numbers. As of today, the Toronto Etiquette Project website has had almost 23,000 page views, with over 3200 downloads.

The expanded Urban Etiquette Project / Projet D'Étiquette Urbaine, launched in May 2012, has had over 20,000 page views, 1900 English downloads and 200 French downloads.

Since the launch of the bilingual cards, I have also had requests for Spanish and Portugese cards – and even volunteers for the translating! These are currently in the works, and should be coming in the new year. As well, a woman in Baghdad had translated the entire blog and cards into Arabic - amazing!

Additionally, a middle school counsellor in Georgia contacted me about adapting the positive etiquette cards to fit middle school scenarios to encourage kindness, respect and pro-social behaviours at the most critical developmental age:

Every adult in our building was given three cards each, wrote their names on the back and were asked to distribute to students when they saw acts of kindness. Four 8th graders were given three each as well, same instructions.

How awesome is that?

And most recently, a Vancouver college student writing a research paper on public transit etiquette requested permission to discuss the etiquette project. I enthusiastically obliged.

What does this all mean? Even though the etiquette project is not in the headlines anymore, people are still engaged and interested in improving public etiquette in their own personalized way, and this is very encouraging. As we head into the hustle and bustle of December, it doesn't hurt to remind everyone to slow down, be courteous, and find little ways to make life better for those around you.

Have a happy and healthy holiday season.

--

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” - Plato