This winter, our Design Apprentices took on Wide Angle as a client to create custom temporary tattoos for our annual Valentine’s Day mailing. We use this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to the supporters in our community. If you received a tattoo in the mail, snap a pic, post on social media and tag Wide Angle! We’d LOVE to see them out in the world : )

Learn about the creative process and design inspiration for each one below.

“My team and I first began this project by researching why tattoos are so valued and what the exact connection is with a tattoo and individuals. We found that tattoos are a means of expression for one's beliefs and aspirations. 

When creating sketches for this design project, I was inspired to illustrate cross-generational media. My sketches were very flat and had no character to them. I was then tasked to learn Illustrator for the first time in order to create vectors of my sketches. Seeing this software and knowing what I imagined my tattoo to be, I was originally stuck as to where to even begin.

My second tattoo represents intersectionality, which was the theme of our past fall event of 2019. I was inspired by the shape of the intersectionality symbol and noticed how it resembles the shape of a Venn Diagram. As I began designing I decided to represent design by using the CMYK color scheme. This tattoo was more challenging to make than it may appear. Fidgeting with the colors to make the perfect color blend and to also have the perfect spacing was very hard. Overall, I believe this is a very strong illustration that first began as simple stroke lines but then transformed into a well rounded piece of design.”

- Lacee Cottman

“For my first tattoo, “Youth Voice,” I wanted something that looked very human-like and natural rather than computerized. The unpredictability of brush strokes also inspired me. I started off by loosely writing out “youth voice” on paper and seeing what I loved about it. After that I looked for typefaces that gave me that same feeling I had when looking at the handwritten type. I found Flood Standard captured the right tone. The message behind this tattoo is that youth voices are unpredictable, bold, and authentic. All could be used to describe the tattoo as well. The only challenge I had with the design was that I originally had a mouth drawing to emphasize voice. After several iterations I removed it and just showcase the statement, “Youth Voice.” The hardest part about design is having to be open to critique and that's something I'm constantly working on. You can design something and love every bit of it but a second pair of eyes looking over your work is crucial to having an amazing end product. I redesigned the mouth part of the tattoo over three times trying to get it right. It got to the point where we decided to just remove the mouth completely. It was a hard decision because, to me, the mouth symbolized how young people have voices and how edgy and authentic our voices are. But I quickly realized design is not only for yourself but for the people and community around you.

For my second tattoo I was inspired by what is often referred to as director hands which is a method used to frame up shots. I decided to do a cartoon style rather than a realistic style to make it more playful and engaging. I also included the heart to tie it back to Valentine’s Day. Wide Angle frames up the hearts of the community and young people by encouraging them to follow their dreams and be themselves. The director hands symbolize Wide Angle and the heart in the middle represents the students and everyone touched by the organization. Overall I enjoyed this project and I’m very happy with the final deliverables.”

- Chamia Winston

“The inspiration behind my tattoo designs is how Wide Angle creates an impact in the places and spaces we live. The process started pretty slow. I felt like I was still coming up with ideas while I was designing the tattoos. I used simple shapes to design the tattoos because I didn’t want to make the tattoos too complex, especially since they are going to be small.  For my first tattoo idea “Listen to the Earth” I used headphones to portray the listening part of my tattoo because I love listening to music and it takes me to another place, and that’s how I came up with the idea how Wide Angle listens to others in different places of the world. I wanted to show how Wide Angle can impact the community in Baltimore but can also help other places by listening to social issues and problems [that] communities are facing. The heart shows how at Wide Angle we care about listening to other people’s stories.

The next tattoo I call “iHeartBMORE.” I want people to wear something that shows they love Baltimore. As a youth in Baltimore I feel the negative stigma that is projected onto us and I was inspired to design something that symbolizes our love for a vibrant city that helps shape communities filled with culture and generosity.

Throughout this whole process, something that I achieved was finding a “why” in every part of my design and creating a story that people can connect to with each idea as well. A challenge was the iterations with each tattoo. It did get frustrating having to keep changing the design because I would be thinking I was done with the tattoo then something else needed to be changed. I enjoyed sketching out the tattoos first and then turning them into digital designs.”

- Kalaia Petteway