When I set out to start my own company, I knew that it was going to be difficult and that I would learn a lot about business, but I never imagined I'd learn so much about myself. This journey has been one of exploration, self-discovery, and enlightenment, and this collection represents a full year of lessons learned.
The idea of a discovery-themed collection wasn't preconceived; it happened very naturally. Wanting to create more art to feature alongside Stay Humble, I began sketching the phrase "Find Yourself."
The phrase came to mind when I realized that I had lost sight of my goals and veered off course from the person I wanted to be. Not only had I allowed my ambition to cause me to neglect my family, but I had also begun making poor business decisions based on fear and scarcity. I wanted to create a reminder that it takes active awareness not to divert from your goals and values; your sense of self is essentially fleeting.
To represent this, I converted the lettering into halftones and made it fade away towards the bottom (a fleeting "self").
Naturally, I began reflecting on my journey and all the valuable knowledge I've gained along the way, and I realized that it all began with one small step - quitting my full-time job to start my business. I was working full-time as a designer at a very stable company with great benefits - what most would consider a dream scenario. I honestly thought I was going to retire at that company. Yet, I still craved the freedom to create on my own terms.
After careful consideration and overcoming tons of hesitation, I decided to leave the comfort of stable employment and enter the unknown realm of entrepreneurship. It was an enormous leap of faith, but I can now look back and see that it was actually a very small step towards doing something much bigger and more meaningful.
The One Small Step lettering naturally took on a NASA-like vibe with some multi-stroke letterforms and a few fun ligatures.
Integrating Stay Humble came very naturally since its original inspiration came from seeing the Milky Way for the first time. Rather than keeping the lettering solid as I had already done before, I decided to stroke the individual vector shapes which composed the lettering. Exposing the inner workings of the letterforms represented my continued transparency of the difficulties of starting my business.
I've been a fan of space exploration since I was a kid, and I've always loved design elements of anything associated with the future. High-tech looking heads-up displays, logos, space suits, mission patches, illustrations - everything! I drew inspiration from my favorite space / exploration / futuristic organizations, films, TV shows, toys, and even my favorite sneaker designs.
All great things begin the same way - with one tiny action leading to a chain reaction of exponentially bigger actions. No one has ever turned a dream into reality by sitting there and waiting for something to happen.
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao Tzu