I wrote this down on a piece of paper after watching the documentary about writer Toni Morrison’s life. I came away with lots of gems but this quote stood out. The context is the racism she and her family experience in the United States but I think it applies to governments like the United States who have used colonialization or imperialism as a way to steal resources and gain power.
“If you can only be tall when somebody is on their knees then you have a problem” -Toni Morrison.
Hey these are some cool new stickers I made for an organization called Convergence. They’re a digital and print magazine who makes articles, videos, podcasts, and more around organizing and political issues. Here’s their official description:
“Convergence is a magazine for radical insights. We produce articles, videos, and podcasts to sharpen our collective practice, lift up stories about organizing, and engage in strategic debate — all with the goal of winning multi-racial democracy and a radically democratic economy.”
I did a whole bunch of different sketches and ideas with phrases that Convergence wanted to see and these are the phrases they wanted to see.
From there I did a bunch of color ideas using a limited color palette and I was really happy they let me run with that.
These are the final color pieces and….
And this is what the final stickers looked like. I really loved working on this with Convergence and love how they came out. I have been making stickers and merch for myself for awhile now and this is only the second time Ive been hired to do it for someone else which was fun!! I’m not sure if you can buy these individually but I know the org was using them as part of one of their fundraising efforts. Go to Convergence.com to find out more about their work. (I did not design The Convergence logo).
Ey, myself, Nisha Sethi, and Miguel Bounce Perez will be speaking about Graff, lettering, and answering questions about it with the Letterform Archive Thursday Septermber 7th from 12-1:30pm. Tune in online, its FREE.
This talk is connected to a much larger show at the Letterform Archive called “Subscription to Mischief” about the culture of Graffiti zines. The show is up until October 5th!
Dig this? Here’s a video from a show we did in 2015 called “Of Love & Riots 2”
Hey fam, I hope you’re well. It has been a rough one for me lately but trying to hold on to it. Check out some of these things that have been dope to me recently. Keep going.
What’s this? This inspiration board is one of the ways I stay inspired and sane through all of life’s trials, and tribulations, work, etc. I’ve been making inspiration boards full of films, books, music, events, people, artists, movements, and more for over a decade. Do you have an inspiration board? Please share in the comments.Who am I? My name is Rob Liu-Trujillo and I’m an artist working in kid lit, public art, and other disciplines. Go to my website, or follow me on IG or YouTube. You can also cop my first art book here.
Thank god for Maurice Cherry who has done so much work to highlight Black designers, artists, and creatives with his work. I just came across Cymone or “Simon and Moose”. Wow, what a breath of fucking fresh air it is to see this person’s work. She is Amazing.
What’s this bruh? This is where I share artists that have been inspiring to me in my work sometimes directly and other times indirectly. Check out Cymone Wilder’s website here. You can see the many clients she work with , her personal work, merch, and more. Wow is what I keep saying to myself.
I haven’t highlighted that many type artists or designers who work with letters but I will do that more because I pull inspiration from them as much as I do illustrators or muralists. Cymone is someone you should watch and follow. Like now, do that now. Here is her IG.
You can read an interview she did with the Nashville Voyager (where she’s based) and get a sense of what makes her do what she does. Stay tuned for more.
Did you catch the posts I made about these other amazing artists?
Yooo, just put these bad boys together in a pack. This is a 6 sticker pack of words and phrases meant to be reminders to self, motivational, and affirming. You can cop a pack for yourself or your team here.
Man many moons ago I did this painting and a whole series of pieces I called “positive wall affirmations”. It was a great creative exercise for me since I do a ton of figurative/ portrait work. It’s fun to play with lettering since thats how I got my start. But for folks who couldn’t buy an original painting, I decided to approach some of those same positive sentiments as stickers. And so far so good.
Here are some of the stickers I’ve made over the past year or two. They focus on affirmations, taking care of ourselves, and affirming cultural pride. If you haven’t looked at my shop recently check it out here.
Hey this is a new sticker in a series of self care/ encouragement/ affirming stickers. Sometimes you gotta hit the pause button, or maybe you need to remind someone to do it.
Wanna see some of the creative process? Check it out:
First I did a bunch of different versions of the same word using different font styles. The check marks you see are from my homies and my wife telling me which ones they preferred.
I narrowed it down a bit and combined some elements to make it a more simple shape.
I decided on the color scheme and did some rough color versions. And I chose the bottom right one finally.
Then I painted in gouache. Scanned it and then brought it into Photoshop and to clean it up, moving the shadow and letters a tiny bit to make it more symmetrical. I also adjusted the color a bunch because it was tough to duplicate the screen color.
And then here’s the final product. I get stickers from a bunch of different places, but one I go to often is Sticker Giant in Colorado who just shipped these to me. What do you think? Dig it? I DO!! I love how it came out and I hope others will dig them. Eventually I’ll make a sticker pack of these:
One day I’ll make a video talking about these stickers. But for now i’ll just say that many years ago I made a series of paintings called “positive wall affirmations” made to serve people by offering a positive message for the home, class, office, etc. The original one of a kind paintings did ok and made some folks really happy. But the stickers are a bit more affordable, especially if you’re not an art collector.
Anyways, thanks for reading. You can get this Pause sticker here or get a sticker sheet I made a year ago for self care here as well. If you know someone who is learning to make merchandise using their art, please share this post with them.
Here is a new sticker reminding you to “breathe”. Its number four in a series of self care stickers aimed at getting folks to slow down and take stock of what’s next and what matters. Cop one for you or for your team HERE.
