The Power of Prototyping: My First Steps in Bringing My Vision to Life

Yesterday, I took a significant step forward in my project by sending off some samples to be printed. These were just single pages, but they served an important purpose: allowing me to see firsthand how everything would look and function. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite like holding a physical example in your hands, tracing the letters yourself, to get a tangible sense of how it all comes together.

The moment I received the prints, I knew I was on the right track, but also that some adjustments were needed. For instance, the font color was an immediate point of consideration. I realized that I needed to use a lighter color to make tracing work better, and I also needed to enlarge the font—especially the cursive one, but even the print font could benefit from a slight size increase.

The font in the printed image above appears darker than it actually is, this is an artifact of snapping a picture with my phone (the phone tries to make things look "better"), I know that I'll still need to lighten it up more to achieve the perfect look. Also, forgive my messy handwriting, I was trying to hold my phone/camera and take pictures while I was tracing over the letters, it was a bit of a struggle.

To experiment, I traced the letters with a regular black ink pen and then with a medium blue Sharpie. As expected, the Sharpie bled through the paper, which is probably the worst-case scenario when it comes to ink bleeding. But this was exactly what I needed to know; it helped me understand the limitations.

Tracing the letters was more than just a test—it was fun and really exciting. It felt like I was one step closer to bringing this project to life. I'm so excited to keep moving forward and, eventually, hold the finished book in my hands.

This experience has reaffirmed the importance of prototyping. There's so much value in testing things out, seeing them up close, and making necessary tweaks. Each step brings me closer to the final product, and I couldn't be more excited about where this journey is headed.