I like to change up my desktop wallpaper fairly frequently with a nice new piece of lettering to keep me inspired. I thought I’d share my latest design with you today. This one is for the adventure cats among you!
The lettering itself was created in Procreate using my Copperplate Brush combined with a beautiful floral pattern background from Drawn The Art on Creative Market. As well as the lovely illustration, the colour choice used is so striking and harmonious, I didn’t need to change anything but just add the lettering!
Without further ado, here are your wallpapers. The download includes 2 resolutions for both Desktop (1280 x 1024px & 1920 x 1080px) and iPad (1536 x 2048px & 2048 x 2732px).
About the Design
‘Salto Mortale’ is Italian for ‘a dangerous or daring jump’. A leap into the unknown.
Inspired by Seth Godin’s talk at last year’s Convertkit (now Seva) Craft + Conference, where he discusses the power of doing something differently. Making whatever it is you make, a craft rather than mass producing. Putting the art back into the work and therefore the world. About the genourisity involved in not aiming for the middle, but focusing on the people on the edges that care about what you do. That message resonates with me. This video is as inspiring as it is entertaining.
A Little Personal Update*
This blog is focused on lettering and design and I don’t often write about my personal life. I opened up a bit last year sharing the news that my mother was diagnosed with cancer. The last nine months have been intense, physically but more so, emotionally. We were living in the UK at the time and my family are based in Australia. I moved to Melbourne in November last year (and Darren joined me in January), saying goodbye to our home in London for the past 16 years.
Unfortunately, my father passed away unexpectedly just before Christmas. It was a massive shock, none of us saw it coming. We had three days notice and sat by his bedside to say goodbye (which I consider myself very lucky to be able to do, as not everyone gets this gift). It rocked me to the core.
My mother started chemo straight after this, and was in a bad way for several weeks. There was barely time for our heads to stop spinning. Darren and I relocated to Brisbane to live in the family home and help take care of her for four months. We were also under a lot of time pressure to submit our partner visa to allow him to stay in Australia, which was a full time project in itself. It felt like everyone I loved was at risk in one way or another. Everything. all. at. once.
The good news is, Mum has shown a massive improvement from the treatment. Apart from some small side effects from her medication, she is mostly fit and healthy again. I could not be happier to have her back. She is not in the clear from her condition, but will get more time (hopefully many years). There were a lot of positives twisted in this dark and turbulent chapter of our life, it feels like another chance.
After 9 months of bunking with family, I’m happy to say we now have a home of our own (renting only at this stage)! This has done wonders for my state of mind and productivity. We are so grateful and lucky to have generous family sharing their space with us for so long, but there’s no place like home! And, best of all, we have a studio space – something I’ve wanted for a long, long time. No more working from the living room table.
My iMac is in the shop getting fixed and we are yet to decorate with artwork and plants, but here’s a little snap of the early stage set up. I even splashed out on a standing desk!
*OK. Not so little update.
I’m working on a few exciting projects for iPC that I can’t wait to share with you! The ideas kept coming even though I had no time or headspace to implement. It was difficult to step away from work I love for so long, but family had to come first.
It’s good to be back. Salto Mortale!