An Alphabet 100 success story

Back in March, I got this lovely email in my inbox:

Hi Christopher,
I am a graphic design teacher at Derby High School in Connecticut. In creating a font/text lesson for my class, I came across your Alphabet 100 series; What a great idea!  I would like to use your blank template as an exercise for my students to choose just one letter and challenge themselves to your same project. They will then have the choose what they think is the best design, and produce it in MS Publisher (we can not afford Illustrator licensing). I just wanted to say THANK YOU for providing the PDF as a free download from your website, promoting young designers and the industry!  

Most Sincerely,
Tracie B.

I replied to Tracie immediately, expressed my enthusiasm about her project, and eagerly told her to move forward with the exercise, with the promise that she would keep me posted on the progress.

Then, two months later, the results came in.

I was SO astounded by the talents of these high school students. Such creativity! Although each piece had its own merits, Tracie enlisted me with the daunting task of selecting a winner (all in good fun). It was nearly impossible to select just one, so I ended up choosing 2 winners.

Here is the winner of Best Process: Brayan


Here is the winner of Best Final: Christian

I was so moved by the entire experience that I decided to send each winner a copy of my Alphabet 100 print.

Tracie sent me the photo above with the winner proudly presenting their posters, and this lovely note:

I can't thank you enough for participating - your professionalism and creativity have added a great deal to the students enthusiasm for the project (and mine too, I must admit. If the teaching gets stale, the kids get bored and aren't open to all that we can show them, so I've got to keep it fresh for me too!) I teach this course every year second term, so maybe I can send you a whole new round of finalists next year! :)

What an incredible experience! I am so happy that I was able to connect with the classroom. Thank you Tracie for reaching out to me with this amazing opportunity. I can't wait to do it again.

Keep up the good work, kids!

9 new prints for 2013

After months of preparation, I am thrilled to unveil 9 new pieces of art, all available in my shop.

Drumroll please!

1) Square brush script alphabet print
This alphabet was hand-lettered with a Pentel brush pen, scanned, and screen printed by hand in Toronto with black water-based ink on 245gsm pure white 100% cotton archival paper.



2) Triangle brush script alphabet print
This alphabet was hand-lettered with a Pentel brush pen, scanned, and screen printed by hand in Toronto with black water-based ink on 245gsm pure white 100% cotton archival paper.


3) Circle brush script alphabet print
This alphabet was hand-lettered with a Pentel brush pen, scanned, and screen printed by hand in Toronto with black water-based ink on 245gsm pure white 100% cotton archival paper.



4) Razorblade screen alphabet print
This layered alphabet features the typeface Razorblade, which I designed back in 2009. These 9" x 9" posters are screen printed by hand in Toronto with water-based ink on 245gsm pure white 100% cotton archival paper.


5) Geometrica Sans snellen chart alphabet print
This alphabet, inspired by old-fashioned eye charts, features one of the faces of Geometrica Sans, a typeface I designed back in 2010. These 9" x 18" posters are ink jet printed in Toronto in full colour on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper.


6) Razorblade cut-and-fold alphabet print
This conceptual alphabet is a variation of the typeface Razorblade, which I designed back in 2009. These 9" x 9" posters are ink jet printed in Toronto in greyscale on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper. (Check out the preliminary work here.)


7) Geometrica Sans school alphabet print
This elementary school-inspired alphabet features one of the faces of Geometrica Sans  a typeface I designed back in 2010. These 9" x 9" posters are ink jet printed in Toronto in full colour on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper.


8) Geometrica Sans shapes alphabet print
This Bauhaus-inspired alphabet features one of the faces of Geometrica Sans, a typeface I designed back in 2010. These 9" x 9" posters are ink jet printed in Toronto in full colour on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper.


9) Alphabet 100 mini-prints
You can now purchase your favourite letter from the Alphabet 100 project. There are 52 letters to choose from – A through Z, in both uppercase and lowercase. Pictured below is upper case A, B and C. View all the letters here, and the complete list of options here. These 9" x 9" posters are ink jet printed in Toronto in full colour on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper.


All these 9" x 9" prints (with the exception of the Geometrica Sans snellen chart alphabet print) fit perfectly in the simple (and affordable!) Ikea Ribba frame.


Do you have a baby shower coming up? Need a birthday gift? Graduation present? Please keep these prints in mind if you need gifts for friends and loved ones in the coming months.

As a further incentive, I have launched an exciting promotion for the month of May (please see attached). If you spend $60 on your favourite prints, you will get $10 off! Please enter promo code ABC2013 at checkout. Offer ends May 31, 2013.

And, if that wasn't enough, if tweet or retweet about the promo on Twitter, you will be entered to win a FREE 9" x 9" print of your choice. Wee! Just make sure my handle, @Chris_Rouleau, is in your tweet. Enter as many times as you want!

I must extend a huge thank you to Raymond at Front Print, and a extra big thanks to Bianca, Mike, Jordy and everyone at Kid Icarus who helped make the screen prints come to live. I couldn't be happier!

Well, what are you waiting for? Get some new art for your home or office! And if you like the new work, please forward this blog post to your friends (especially educators and moms/moms-to-be), and share the promo details on your social networks. The best publicity is word of mouth.

Happy spring! And happy shopping!

CR

Alphabet 100 print

I am proud to unveil the new Alphabet 100 print to my online shop. For 52 consecutive weeks in 2012, I chose one letter, drew 100 variations of it, and then rendered the best or most interesting option in Illustrator. After 5200 thumbnail sketches, 52 complete illustrations, and over 200 hours of work, this is the final compilation of letters in full printed technicolour glory.

When I started back in January 2012, I had no idea how the project would evolve. But as the weeks progressed, it turned out that most (actually, all but two) of the final illustrations represented something that started with that letter. One exception was upper case 'Y'; in this case, I substituted the lower case 'y', and created a new lower case version:


The second anomaly was lower case 'a', so I went back to the drawing board and created this version:


With these two revisions, here is the complete list of alphabet illustrations:



These 24" x 24" prints are ink jet printed in Toronto in full colour on 180gsm ultra white matte cotton-based art paper. Each illustration is 2" x 2".

More detailed photos below.


The perfect gift for any child, or the child in all of us. Purchase your copy here.
Thanks in advance!