What’s With All the Scribbles?

Yeah, so… all scribbles on my site… 

Actually, they aren’t scribbles at all. They’re layers and layers of my actual handwriting. Why though?

Like, many creatively-afflicted  types, all of my creative energy isn’t funneled through one singular outlet. Like so many of my artsy brethren, my creativity leaks out in other ways. Musical and audio butchery… Culinary abominations… And in this case—regarding the so-called scribbles—creative writing.

I have binders of this stuff going back decades. Song Lyrics. Poems. Creative prose. Essay drafts from college. Creative brainstorming notes. I love that stuff. What I love about them is that they remind me of that moment of inspiration. That awesome ah-ha moment of creative conception. It symbolizes thought. The thought and the heart that went into making it become a thing. That’s why I have incorporated it into my own site. It represents hours, days, weeks, months, and years of time put into being creative.  I’d like to think it also adds a bit of a personal touch. Because of that—bottomline—I just like it.

Throughout the years, my handwriting  has even found its way into design projects from time to time. I love using actual handwriting as opposed to a handwriting-style font when appropriate. There’s a warmth and personable nature that comes across that cant be achieved by a font whose repeating letters are all identical.

Years back, I started using the layered handwriting on my profile pictures on Facebook and Instagram.  I thought it was cool. As a graphic artist and all-around creative weirdo, there was no way I could just upload a plain random pic of me from Christmas or my birthday.

Travis Stoneback
Obnoxious social media profile pics from years past, drowning in my handwriting to depict creative thought. Also, a bear (skin rug) in a tanning bed, wearing protective goggles, with a rum and coke, that probably deserves its own post. It's a whole story. No bears were tanned in the making of this photo.

So, that’’s the deal with all the scribbles on my site. It represents years of creativity—both professional and recreational—that helped bring me to where I am today. I realize that many corporate designs these days prefer a cleaner, crisp, minimal look. I can do that, and I like that style as well. But for my own site, I thought it best to let a little of me come through.

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