The start of this week marked the end of one of my favorite yearly events: 36 Days of Type.

Each spring, bunches of designers, illustrators, photographers, 3D modelers, and artists of all kinds commit to the same challenge. Each day for 36 days in a row, the artist will craft their version or vision of a type character – starting with A through Z, then 0 through 9. The result is a dazzling array of typography and art spanning a huge spectrum of styles and mediums.

This was my third year participating in the 36 Days of Type challenge. Each year I like to pick a theme to help guide my creativity so I’m not left going “what do I make?!” each day. The first year, I did photographs of ideas beginning with or related to each character, using everyday objects. The second year, I got creative with negative space and textural backgrounds. If you take a good browse down my Instagram feed you can see the past years’ entries.

This year, my theme was art movements, styles and techniques. This was much easier for some letters than others. Numbers… I had to get a bit more creative. I had a little notebook I did each one in. I used a pad of post-it notes to draw a square on each page, and then each day I used that square as a boundary for my entry. Take a look at some of my favorites from my 36 Days of Type line-up this year:

 

I wasn’t the only one participating in this challenge, of course! Visual artists of all stripes from around the world chimed in as well. Some picked a theme and stuck to it (like me), some have a signature style they used, and some just had fun. Here’s a highlight of some of my favorite contributors to this round of 36 Days of Type (click on links to see their Instagram accounts):

 

Check out these artists, and maybe have a browse through the expansive #36daysoftype hashtag for some seriously cool visual inspiration.

Have you participated in a challenge like 36 Days of Type before? What other visual challenges should I try out?