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When I began this newsletter, I was all set to talk about hibernating. Then the news broke last night that England will be in a second lockdown. I wasn’t planning to mention Covid-19 as I’m sure that we’re all feeling uncertain and worried, but it seems impossible not to. I’m attempting to view this second lockdown as enforced hibernating. I’ve got Nigel Slater’s Christmas Chronicles off the bookshelf and starting making a rag rug wreath for the front door.

I have also turned to poetry these past few weeks. I was reminded of this beautiful poem Time to be slow by John O’Donohue through the Poems on the Underground project which began in 1986. I love the art of the Tube - from Harry Beck’s underground map and the branding of British Rail - mostly thanks to my dad who worked for the railway until he retired. Poems on the Underground has enabled many people to learn more about poetry in an unusual environment.

O’Donohue was a priest and Gaelic poet. Time to be slow was first published as part of a book of blessings; Benedictus: Book of Blessings. I first heard it read on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme by BBC reporter, Fergal Keane in March at the start of the lockdown when he shared words that brought him comfort during PTSD. It was moving to hear the poem then and I thought it appropriate to share today in the hope it might help you though the days and months to come.

If - like me - you’ve been worried about waking up in the early hours, then you might enjoy At Day’s Close: a History of Nighttime by Roger Ekirch. The author explains that nights were divided into two parts, with a ‘watch’ between first and second sleep during which time people might pray or converse quietly with others. I don’t think Ekirch meant grabbing the phone and getting onto Twitter (!) so I’ve swapped my phone for this book.

Here’s what else I’ve been doing. I’d love to know what you’ve been up to and your plans for the future.

• Watching ATypI 2020 which is an international gathering of anyone involved in type. This online conference brought together typeface designers, lettering artists, publishers, developers, educators, and other members of the global type, tech, and design communities.

• Reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It is as good as the hype. I’ve also followed author S J Watson on Twitter, who debuted a few years ago with his novel Before I Go To Sleep. I am enjoying his friendly and chatty tweets.

• Signed up to The Helpful Clinic emails. I met founder Thor via Drive The Network and the advice they share on the blog is incredibly useful.

• Bought a badge from talented Cambridge based illustrator Abi Stevens. Her designs are beautiful.

• Running community chats each week with The Full Stop podcast, which I co-present. We set these up in October and run thought to December to support those who may feel isolated in lockdown.

• Booking workshops with Drive The Network. I’m looking forward to learning about management finances with Dennis Harhalakis at Cambridge Money Coaching and Helen Lindop on CRM set-ups. I’ve just renewed with Drive for the fourth year. I’m always impressed by the support that founder Ann Hawkins and fellow members provide. I also had the opportunity to present a talk about image copyright to the group too as I also offer picture research. If you’d like to be my guest at a Drive The Network event or would like to join, let me know.

• Designing A Gift of Stories by H. D Michaels. I was delighted to receive the testimonial above from my client after completing her book cover design, and layout of the print and ebook pages.

Festive font pairing

Plans for season social media should be well underway by now. If you’d like to add a little festive style to your graphics, you may wish to try out Mountains of Christmas which is free for commercial use on Google Fonts. It’s a playful font so it’s best paired with a simple serif such as Open Sans or Lato.

When you are looking for fonts, do be aware of the licence as this advises where you can use them. For example Perfect Christmas is a great seasonal fun font from Dafont, but it’s free for personal use and a charge applies for commercial use.

And remember that in design, less is always more. It’s very tempting to get carried away with wacky type but keep your branding in mind and legibility too. This article from my blog gives some type tips for social media and there’s a link within the article on how to place text on images.

If you’re happy to pay a small feel to a type designer for commercial use then you may want to chose North and South Pole. Both fonts are designed to be used together and created by Jen Wager and Co. You can download them here

Nero’s Kitchen

As well as donating to The Big Issue Foundation to support homeless people this year, I also gift fundraising dog biscuits to clients who are owned by four legged friends. If your dog missed out on Molly-taste-tested biccies drop me a line! Better still, share a photo of your woof/s on social media (Twitter, Instagram or Linked In) and tag me.

These aren’t any old biscuits. Owner of Nero’s Kitchen, Jan, bakes them using natural ingredients from her kitchen in Happisburgh, Norfolk and every single penny goes to the Elpida Shelter of Hope in Crete who care for stray dogs.

Oh - if your dog is nervous of fireworks or you’re thinking of having fireworks in your garden, then here’s some advice from The Dogs Trust on how to look after your pets and be mindful to pet-owning neighbours, and a poster for children, or adults, to colour in too!

Work with me

To find out if I can help you with your next design project, you can book a no-obligation call with me. Don’t forget that I’m running CRM system Dubsado to help project manage work. It also offers payment plans to help you spread out your budgets. You can drop me an email at berenice@hellolovely.design to find out more.

In the meantime you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Linked In. I welcome questions and comments.

Whatever you get up to in November, please stay safe and well. Let’s keep in touch in these difficult times.

Best wishes

Berenice

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