A friend of mine from college recently sent me a package from her wood shop in Minneapolis. We had been art majors and shared many of the same classes. I remember she would give me a squirt gun before art history class and have me squirt her in the face if she fell asleep :). Anyway, back to the package. She now runs a business making hand carved cutting boards, vases, bottle stoppers, home accessories etc… She had sent me a hand made cutting board. The first thing I noticed was how beautiful the wood work was, but then I saw the tag attached to the board. It was a small tag tied onto the board with twine. On the tag was her hand drawn logo along a personal note with and care instructions. This got me thinking how nice it is to see hand drawn elements in design. They really personalize the piece and make it unique.
There are many ways to include personal touches into your print and web design. When designing a logo or an ad, why not try to sketch out an illustration or hand draw the headline? Perhaps trying a linoleum cut print. Or if you’re really wanting to get your hand dirty try screen printing the design instead of going straight to the computer. The best part of approaching design in this way, is that a part of you is going into the piece, it’s your “artwork”.
The artwork you create can also be translated into web design. Once you’re art is completed, scan in into your computer and cut it out in photoshop or vectorize it in illustrator. Now you have the ability to add your hand made artwork into your digital files. Sure it’s a lot of extra effort and if you have a quick deadline, you might not want to go this route, but there’s no substitute for creating something with your own 2 hands without the mouse in one of them :).