The Printable Project
With the intention of incorporating illustration practice into my daily habits, I created a year-long series of monthly prints that I then offered to my followers and subscribers. The project proved to be incredibly beneficial to me and my community and I'm proud of the discipline and effort it took me to achieve a self-imposed goal diligently!
Project: Monthly illustrated printables
Role: Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Product manager.
Personal Project
Date: Jan - Dec 2021
On 2021 I embarked on the huge journey of creating monthly prints for me and my followers, mainly to stay organized during the weeks of quarantine and classes. The calendars kept me going through my senior year of Uni and the daily practice of illustration was an enjoyable and creative activity I developed along the way.
The project was completed with +60 illustrations, 9 months of action, +300 downloads and +24 million (!!!) gif uses over on Giphy!
Every month's illustration was based on the winning theme that my followers voted on polls over on Instagram; and the pieces included monthly planners, calendars, wallpapers and gifs to use on stories (all drawn and designed by yours truly!).
This project showed me the satisfaction of sticking to your own promises and keeping your word. I'm proud of the results and even more, I'm proud of the time I made out of my tight schedule to train my growth mindset, successfully leaving a fixed one behind.
Why a monthly schedule?
Born to a family of teachers and school directors, my curiosity and love for education runs deep. I constantly find new ways of organization, and I enjoy reviewing processes and finding better solutions. So having a monthly challenge looked amazing for me: I believe that revision, iteration and testing are keys to success, and I wanted to bring this framework to the Printables Project, so that I could improve my soft and hard skills altogether.
Keeping the users in mind at all times (me as a student included), I also found that monthly planning works well for short and long term! Having the whole month at a glance gives you great perspective to mentally locate yourself, know where you stand and what you have to do to continue moving forward.
Let's see some prints and how they developed over time!
February
Stems turn to ribbons and petals into pins: This month was all about Flowers! With a warm color palette, I explored different Argentinian species and took some creative liberties with the scale.
This is how the project started, just two monthly calendars and phone wallpapers.
March
March and Mariposa share the same initials, and my followers didn't think it was a coincidence. With three different color schemes, lovely butterflies flew all over the prints this time!
What's new? This time, I experimented with different layouts, dark backgrounds and some variations of calendars and to-do lists. They were well received, but I knew I could do better!
April
The main theme for this month were the soft and crunchy leaves of the first days of fall (here in the South hemisphere!) and they came along with the promise to take a moment to breathe as the year kicks in!
Users sent feedback from last month's: They were running out of space to write!
I took this into consideration and created a new version to test again, called Notas del Mes
May
Inspired by the global challenge 'MerMay', the theme for May was Marine life! Usually, I go live on Instagram to illustrate every print, but this time I recorded a mini-tutorial instead (I'll spare you my voice-over here!).
The new print Notas del Mes was a success, and I kept the same feedback fixes for the following prints.
June
In honor of Pride Month and after two themes with fixed color palettes, I wanted to go all in with hot air balloons! This one was the favorite of the year as well as the most searched on Giphy (13 million to this baby alone!).
July
Originally we'd only explore the stars as they won the poll, but how could I leave the planets behind? This is by far the most diverse of months, with light and dark themes and animated wallpapers to try live lockscreens!
August
I already knew what August would be, since it's one of my best friends birthday month! Alvaro takes mind blowing photos of his home, Jujuy, and you'll often see cacti on them. This was my little gift and homage to him.
November
This colorful month was voted so quickly! And frankly, I get it. It's hot in here and its Finals season for most students. The only thing we want to do is eat fresh fruits, stay cool and organized.
Dreaming of washi tapes and cute stickers!
and supermarket lists to buy only what's necessary!
December
The happiest and busiest time of the year called for some Holiday vibes to lift our spirits! Featuring a very Argentinian christmas with mantecol, sidra, and estrellitas.
Community reception, and the biggest takeaway
Every single message I received warms my heart to this day and it makes me incredibly proud to know that the Prints were of help. This project was a gift to myself and all students out there that needed a little push of motivation, and I couldn't be happier with the reception, feedback and support I received throughout it. They made it as much as I did.
Personally, I noticed how constant practice has now settled into my routine. I no longer abandon personal projects if big projects are pressing, because I know how to organize my time better and I started to believe in the weight of my own projects. It was very nice to realize that I no longer felt guilty for giving them the time and place they deserve.
I wanted more illustration in my daily life and I made it happen.
I want many more things and little by little I will continue learning how to achieve them!
Gif stats as of March 2022
Top 5 animated gifs!
