Everything I Learned From “36 Days Of Type”

4 min readMar 31, 2017

36 Days of Type is a project that invites Designers, Illustrators and Graphic Artists from all over the world, to express their particular view on alphabets and numbers. Participants are challenged to design a letter or number each day.

“36 Days Of Type” was a personal challenge for me considering I started last year and left it in between. I was out of ideas and couldn’t keep up.

But this time, I wanted to complete the challenge despite my busy schedule. I committed to completing the challenge and illustrate one alphabet every day, without fail. It wasn’t easy but I learnt a great deal from the last 36 days of illustrating. Here’s what I learnt:

1. Discipline

When you are working on a personal project, there is no one to push you to finish the deadlines. You have to push yourself and stay motivated — which I know many of you will understand is a difficult thing to do when you have a full time job. Think of this as your regular work-out — you feel lazy at times and skip your classes. Sticking to a 36-day schedule made me realise how wonderful are the fruits of discipline. :)

2. Connecting with fellow illustrators

A great thing about Hashtags is that you are discoverable. For me, it opened gates to find some really talented illustrators and designers who portrayed their work in a style I could never think of. I would message them to appreciate their work and was always greeted warmly. This gave way to the beginning of new connections. They say, “You are the company you keep.” My Instagram company now speaks about who I am and knowing similar people makes me a better version of myself. :)

3. Getting out of comfort zone

Every artist has a style — and when it comes to trying out new styles which you are not comfortable with, you end up in your comfort zone. But this time, I went all in. I tried a lot of new things , new styles and tools which i never used before. I tried animations too and still working on them. I didn’t fear the possible judgements and just worked on expanding my horizon. You can check out my designs here: https://www.instagram.com/yatish_arts
I am open to criticism and feedback. Please do leave your comments. :)

4. Confidence boost

Every ‘like’ that you get on your work is a validation. When you feel accepted and appreciated in the community, you feel more confident about what you are doing. This is what happened with me. Every morning, I would check my phone and feel happy inside about how people are noticing the intricate details of artworks and liking it. This pushes and motivates one to try more and do more.

5. Learn more, do more

I chose “Machines & Tech” as my theme but seriously, as an artist I actually knew nothing about it. There is so much more to learn outside the Art bubble. Machines are vast and there is lot to know and understand. Unless you study your subject, it’s very difficult to put in your heart to do the best.

Workflow. From concept sketch to basic shapes and then adding details

I researched so much about little things on machine design. If it wasn’t for 36 days of type, I would have never discovered this side of me that loves machines and sci-fi stuff.

6. Accomplishment

When I left my last “36 Days of Type” project in between last year, trust me, I felt the guilt throughout the year. Maybe this was my motivation to keep at it and finish it. But it all came with so much learnings and takeaways for a lifetime.

7. Importance of friends

I am quite lucky that I have a few close friends who gave very honest feedbacks, rejected a lot of my artworks and reminded me often — “This is not your best!” or “You should try something better” or simply “This is not looking good”. They told me where I went wrong in this project, how to improve and think more conceptually in the future. It really helped me.

8. Its not work — it’s FUN

In the end, it is not about work — it is about how much fun you had while doing it. The thing with Art is that it is very personal to you. You think about it subconsciously and half of your work is in your mind. It’s so much fun to be at it that it really does not feel like you are putting a forceful effort. It just comes naturally. ❤

Check entire project here.