Neon Franco-Type

A love of drawing letters and a 6-month sabbatical in Geneva begat a project to help me learn French a bit better. This is a project by graphic designer Kate Widdows, begun October 1, 2013. All the lettering here is custom drawn, there are no typefaces used. I use Illustrator for the letters, Photoshop for the glowing and blinking. 
 Coincidentally, after launching this project I discovered that the neon sign was invented in 1902 by a Frenchman named Georges Claude, an engineer, chemist, and inventor. The first public neon lamp was lit on December 11, 1910, in Paris. [note: "type" is actually a misnomer for this blog's title, this is all lettering, forgive me please, I liked the sound of it.] kate [at] kwiddows.com | @katewiddows | eye contactwanna learn how make your own neon GIF ? Enroll in my Skillshare class called Electric Letterland

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bonjour | hello

[eyecontact]

Star Stuff, Unrealized

The GIF is a mockup of my submission to the 2017 Portland Winter Light Festival. The theme of this year’s festival is “between the river and the stars.” While I typically try to avoid lettered quotations (a bit cliché at this point, don’tcha think?), I love Carl Sagan (who doesn’t?) and the quote made sense for the festival, which is hosted by OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). The quote also fits in with my vision of the kind of large scale neon pieces I want to do – positive statements with multi-layered interpretations… it’s sciency (yet poetic) in an almost supernatural, spiritual way, which I love. (More about the science and context of Sagan’s statement here.)

This design was submitted to the festival committee in August, and while the project itself was accepted, the festival was not able to gather enough funding for the piece to be produced. I spec’d out the design at 7 feet high (that was the small version!), and so with all the stars included, it gets to be rather expensive with all the tubing length and skillful bending needed to complete the job.

So, my first real attempt at getting neon funding didn’t pan out – certainly I have lots to learn about neon production, designing large scale pieces, and light festivals. This is just the beginning. I want to neonize the world (mwah ha ha!) and I have lots of ideas brewing, so there is more to come!

I hadn’t animated the design until today. Blinking of the stars was not part of my spec sheet (although I wished it to be) because the technicality of having several transformers going with different timings is enormously expensive and near impossible (according to the shop I work with). The animation here is more of a fantasy, as the stars are fading in and out, all at different paces, which animated physical neon is incapable of doing.

If you live in or near Portland, you should check out the festival ! It was pretty amazing last year. It runs Feb 1-4, here is some schedule info.

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~ non-franco post ~ from my other tumblr.

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J’ai accepté un moi qui est illimité –Anaïs Nin | I have accepted a self that is unlimited –Anaïs Nin 

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jouez | play [imperative, second person plural]

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Recent Work: Take Away your Things and Go

In October I was commissioned to create this GIF for the one and only Selena Gomez (and Interscope Records), as a promo bit for her new album. It is the first line of her song, “Same Old Love.” 

The cursive style of “Go” is based on Selena’s handwriting. 

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~ another non-franco post ~ from my other tumblr

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Enroll in the first ever online pop-up GIF University, which opens 9/21 on skillshare.  READY, SET: GIF! is a monthlong immersion course in the art of Gif making. 

Join me, LA’s motion design superstar Jake Bartlett and New York’s illustrator-animator wonder twin duo, Joy + Noelle as we show you 3 different approaches to Gif-making.  happy GIFing ! Kate

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diversionary post part 2 – last week an article in the Huffington Post featured 2 of my GIFs, and this is one of them. Quite exciting !

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diversionary post part 1 – last week an article in the Huffington Post featured 2 of my GIFs, and this is one of them. Quite exciting ! 

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Very excited & honored to be invited to be an artist on @giphy among some amazing gif artists.. http://giphy.com/katewiddows

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des lunettes | glasses 

[take a peek at my process for this design here]

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Now you can take my Electric Letterland Skillshare class for FREE until March 10th - with this enrollment code: LETSGLOW

use this link to sign up  

thanks, enjoy ~ kw

[ friends – don't hate me for plugging this again, this is the last time I promise.. :)]

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Announcing my “Electric Letterland” Skillshare class!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled GIF-blinking space to bring you a special message…

Wanna to learn how to make your very own neon-style custom-lettered GIFs? Today I have launched a Skillshare class – inspired by THIS VERY BLOG – to teach you just that.

The class is called “Electric Letterland: Building Animated Neon Lettering for Blogs & Websites.” It’s a project-based class that you can take at your own pace, where I guide you though my own process for creating neon GIFs.  

Check out the trailer for the class here. If you enroll in my class you will actually get a 14-day free trial, with access to hundreds of other classes.

Make your own message to the world into a beautiful flashing beacon to light up the vast darkness of the Internet !

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jouissance | feminine pleasure; a meaningful convergence of physical, intellectual, emotional and mystical enjoyment.

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coup de foudre | love at first sight [literally "strike of lightning"]

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bienvenue à tout le monde | welcome everyone 

[ message to all my new followers :) ]

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So yesterday Neon Franco-Type was on Tumblr radar ! What a sweet surprise – merci mille fois people of Tumblr !!

And bienvenue to all the new people here !!

More to come soon !