Corridor (+ IBR)

There's the familiar savoury aroma of curry from the neighbour a few floors downstairs, the indistinct tune of Hokkien karaoke music from the elderly couple across the building, the colourful blinking lights on the window pane of the family in the apartment opposite to celebrate the upcoming Eid - a variety of cultures that ignite senses.

People are moving in and out of their homes either to dry the laundry, buy their groceries or water their plants in their 'gardens'. The serenity doesn't get any more flawless than hearing children's laughter from the playground downstairs. It's a typical weekend in the heartlands of this island city-state.

Since we're a relatively tiny island/city with about 6 million people, we have high population density (as most cities do). This means we have a large number of people living in a particular area. As a result, most of us live in apartment buildings and high rise flats with no backyards.

Corridors are the common spaces that we have - spaces where we see our neighbours and their homes (about five to ten metres away from our very own front door), where children ride on bicycles from one end to the other, and even where people start their own little 'garden' at its sides. Most of these 'gardens' are healthy but they clearly weren't large - usually they were five potted plants lined along the concrete floor against the low walls of the corridor to reach over for sunlight. It seemed to enjoy the sunlight from the highest storeys in the building.

You must think that the corridor seems awfully narrow, but there's indeed a wide area for people to walk and reach the lift lobby from their apartment. Nonetheless, what perhaps is the most important aspect of this common corridor is its role to bring a particular entity together - the people.

It is certainly a different atmosphere in other parts of the world, but what remains most similar is the community that lives in neighbourhoods. There's no doubt that neighbours can come in various forms. Some are reeked in envy, others are as polished as gold. Yet it's important to realise that though there are some who might be putting us off a little, we stay courteous and considerate.

Wherever we are in the world, despite any troubles we might experience, there is indeed a little 'corridor' in each neighbourhood - something that brings people together, something that allows them to live with comfort in the knowledge that there are people who care. It doesn't have to be a place or a tangible item. We can be that little 'corridor' ourselves - the person who just remains as kind and courteous to everyone and makes that little first step towards building relationships regardless of how difficult or awkward they might start off.

Neighbours are people we need, let's aspire to be good ones, for if we love our neighbours as ourselves, we gain nothing more than home sweet home.

Until next time ♥

Lettering and photo by me

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+ The notebook with the beautiful watercolour print featured in the photograph is created by Nancy Tichborne, a talented watercolour artist from New Zealand. I bought the notebook a couple of years back at a local stationary shop, and it is part of the Nancy Floral Series Journal. 

+ This post was also written for the linkup 'Inspired By Random' (IBR), hosted by Fatima from That Delete Button. The linkup includes a writing a post based on a random book title chosen without it being related to the book. 

+ 'Corridor' is the title of a book written by a local Singaporean author Alfian Sa'at, and I picked out the book at random from my to-read list. I've always wanted to read his books because of all the positive reviews I've heard about them, but needless to say, I never took the chance. Here's me taking that opportunity - I'm making it a point to read the random book I've chosen for the linkup after this post. :)

You can also find me on Goodreads.

Completed Project: A Little Yarn Blossom

When I first started off this journey, it was never my intention to offer any design 'services'. The main reason to it was that the thought of disappointing others or not living up to their expectations was frightening. I didn't think I was capable of coming up with something that people liked, and didn't believe in myself. Then, during the project back in February, I realised that it wasn't very much of a service at all - it was a collaboration - we help and learn from one another. I loved working with people because sharing ideas would lead to learning, which is one of my favourite things to do. 

In May, Bryleigh from A Little Yarn Blossom approached me after she saw the project I worked on with Sophie from Sophie Smith, and I was excited to help her out. This would be my third time working with someone and it was going to be another adventure. :) A Little Yarn Blossom is a knit and crochet lifestyle blog, and one of the topics on the blog includes life learning where Bryleigh shares her experiences and lessons she's learnt from them. There are also honest book and music reviews, and if you're a Panic! At The Disco fan, you can give Bryleigh a hi-five. :) Ultimately, I admired Bryleigh's passion for her hobby.  She has a knit and crochet shop called Yarn Blossom, offering various services and products including iPhone and iPad cases. This was a unique hobby and was perhaps the niche of the blog that made the project interesting to work on. :)

It was a pretty fruitful collaboration, with brainstorming and exchange of ideas. We explored an indigo/midnight blue and goldish yellow palette, as well as other options that Bryleigh also liked, including blush pink and black. Finally, we narrowed down the colour palette and worked from there. The indigo/midnight blue and goldish yellow palette was interesting to work with because they were contrasting trinary colours and complementary. Here's a moodboard with some images and colours that inspired the project. 

(Clockwise from top-left) Eva J Art Print / Jotun St Paul's Blue Paint / Watercolour Flower + Lettering by myself / Ginkgo Fabric Print / Calico Wallpapers Gold Foil 

The word 'blossom' in the header was special, especially because 'blossoms' was also the name given to Bryleigh's readers, so the element of a watercolour flower was added to give it a personal and inclusive touch. Here's just some of the headers that were explored during the process, along with some submark options. 

Since A Little Yarn Blossom was based on Bryleigh's interest of knit and crochet, we decided to use this to add a more unique feel to the header variations, including the thread-like flourish. I also added some of my hand-drawn watercolour graphics of sewing and knitting in the design elements to give more character to the design. It was created with watercolour to give a made-from-scratch feel, just like her hobby.

(Inspiration: From left) Ginkgo Fabric Print / Jotun St Paul's Blue Paint / Calico Wallpapers Gold Foil / Eva J Art Print 

As mentioned in the previous project, I'm no professional, just a self-taught young adult keen to learn more. This is just a hobby I enjoy and love doing, it was completely non-profit, and I'd love to hear suggestions and make improvements about anything. It's an interest that I'm exploring everyday and I'm still learning. Bryleigh was very open to ideas, easy-going and enthusiastic, it was enjoyable working with her. It couldn't have been possible with her feedback and ideas as well, so it made the collaboration a very pleasant one. :)

I was almost fully booked with projects for the month of May, and I've been extremely busy. There's so much more to come such that there's a limited space left for collaboration opportunities in June. It's been a hectic month, which is possibly a good thing. I'd like to thank everyone, readers, for their continuous support and I am ever so grateful for every single one. This has been such an incredible journey and I can never be thankful enough for it.

Until next time ♥

Lettering + Design elements by me, Photos as stated in links

Check out the project I worked on with Sophie from Sophie Smith here. 

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On another note, if you're following me on Instagram, you might have learnt about the devastating news I shared that occurred last week. To give a little insight, here's a link to a photograph from one of the news reports, and you may read more details and updates about it on other reports about the tragedy. Innocent, promising lives have been lost, and the country is shaken and mourning. May the souls of those who perished rest in peace. 

The Loopy Doodles: Eyes On You (+ IBR)

Have you ever had perhaps two tabs opened on your browser, and you're conscientiously attempting to complete a task, but decide to open several other tabs instead? You've made the decision to complete that single task, and think to yourself - yes, this is what I'm going to stick to and do for the next hour. Minutes later, you find yourself on another task picked out from your endless to-do list and attempt to do several things at once clumsily.

In our hurried lives, we always want to get things done all at once, and multitasking seems like the best way to check off the boxes of the never-ending list. It often ends with not completing the tasks at all, or even if we do, they aren't of the best quality. Most might think that they've been multitasking well, but if we already find difficulty in focusing on a single task, multitasking is in fact an even more difficult skill to cultivate. 

After what felt like the hundredth time my sister expressed her constant annoyance at the numerous tabs opened in my browser, I found myself returning to the first task and saying to it, "This is it. I'm keeping my eyes on you. Come on, focus."

The notion occurred to me that perhaps before we can multitask, it's important to find focus. There's just too many things to look at that we fail to keep focus at each of them one at a time. There's nothing inherently wrong with multitasking, but one has to be extremely skilled at it to not just complete all of the tasks, but complete it well.

As part of my very own collection called The Loopy Doodles Series (a series of GIFs and animated illustrations with lettering), I've created a lettering with this uplifting quote that has become a state of mind, or perhaps a disposition, that I'd like to work towards.

This image is an animation. Click to play; image will play in an infinite loop without stopping. 

These lines were taken from a poem written by Sarah Williams called The Old Astronomer to his Pupil. They are no doubt the reason to the poem's outstanding recognition. Though the lines works well on its own, it becomes even more enchanting when read with the poem itself, and I'd certainly recommend anyone to read it if they're interested. The poem explored the humbling aspirations of a mentor to his student and the themes of death, knowledge and love.

For the interest of this post, if we take a look at the line on its own, being so fond of the stars is what makes the line so poignant. It's magical to fondly gaze upon the universe and the stars and eventually determine the dark night to be negligible. It's liberating to be so concentrated on a task and eventually become immune to the small petty issues - to keep so focused on a specific task, that we do not notice the darkness or challenges enveloping it. This is the level of focus that perhaps we should aspire to work towards in order to achieve our goals. 

I do realise that this Loopy Doodles Series was supposed to be done monthly, and I truly apologise for not keeping to my word about it. There's been so many new projects and things to deal with lately that it's been pushed back since March. So I've made a decision that it's best if this series is made in to a bi-monthly or tri-monthly (once in two/three months) series instead of a monthly one. I've been quite busy these few weeks and probably will continue to be for the coming weeks because I've been working on these new projects and collaborations that I'm really excited to showcase soon here as well.  :)

In completing these projects, I did find myself toggling from one task to the next. I wasn't a splendid multitasker, so I attempted to focus on one task at a time, and I'd like to think that completing this post without becoming too distracted is a legitimately first successful attempt.

Most of us are always looking for ways to kill two birds with one stone - we've been given numerous opportunities to do so - from the option of opening tabs in browsers to using floating widgets on mobile phones. However perhaps what we need to learn first, is to kill a bird well and effectively, before we attempt the slightly more arduous task of killing both at once, only to merely injure both of them instead.

Until next time ♥ 

Lettering + illustration + animated gif by me 

For more lettering work from the Loopy Doodles Series, click here.

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The Loopy Doodles Series a bi/tri-monthly series of moving drawings + animations with lettering. They'll mostly be in the form of GIFs, and the drawings + lettering will be shown in an animated loop, just like the one above. 

+ This post was also written for the linkup 'Inspired By Random' (IBR), hosted by Fatima from That Delete Button. The linkup includes a writing a post based on a random book title chosen without it being related to the book. (The linkup was hosted back in March, but I haven't gotten the chance to do it, not sure if it's too late or if it's still working. But I've always wanted to do a linkup, and this is my first time participating in one, hope I'm doing this right.) 

+ 'Eyes on You' is the title of a book written by Kate White. I picked out the book at random from my to-read list. It's a psychological thriller, and I'm making it a point to read the random book I've chosen for the linkup after this post. :) 

You can also find me on Pinterest and Goodreads.