When searching for artwork to hang above our bed, these destination art prints from ZGallerie caught my eye:
ZGallerie Destination Art
ZGallerie New York Scene
But because I am NOT willing to shell out about $300 bucks just to own the set ($89.95 + tax, shipping & handling per print!), I chose the DIY route (especially when I look at something and my first thought is, ‘hey, I can do that!). So armed with my trusty Adobe Photoshop, I put my basic graphic design skills to work. The first task at hand was to find the font used in the original prints. My initial guess was ‘Eurostile,’ but since it’s not a free font, I googled “free Eurostile font” and found a worthy substitution: a font called ‘Waukegan.’ I had to scale and stretch the font to my liking, but it turned out pretty well in the end.
Also, I’m psyched I was able to DIY this project because I could personalize it. The ZGallerie prints feature New York City, Los Angeles, and Rome. While LA and Rome are fine cities, they have no significance to Adam and me. Instead, New York City, Fukuoka (Japan), and Nashville are three cities that hold very special places in our hearts, so they were the obvious choices.
After tweaking everything in Photoshop, I headed to the printers to have my artwork printed. I bought three black 11.75″x36″ frames at Michaels for about $35 a pop (on sale, 40% off!) and called it a day. Also, it’s probably not worth mentioning, but if you suffer from pregnancy brain like I do, I’ll let you in on a little secret: one should find the frames first and then create the artwork according to those frame dimensions. Otherwise, one might have one helluva time finding frames to fit wonky artwork dimensions (not that I know anything about this). Anyhoo… I framed the prints and dear Husband hung them up on the wall above our bed. I think they look pretty city chic, don’t you? And saving about $180 makes them look even better!
*Update: After getting numerous requests for these prints, I’ve started selling them in my Etsy shop! Of course, this is totally do-able on your own, but if you want to save yourself the time and effort, feel free to place an order with me! I’d be happy to create a custom piece for you!
Pin for later!
Maggie,
I sell these prints in my Etsy shop: http://jenwoodhouse.etsy.com
Jen, great idea! I was trying to do something similar but gut horribly stuck:
I bought 4 canvasses of same size and wanted to make a template where I cut out the letters and then paint over them to transfer the letters onto the canvas. I did that because instead of the words zgallerie uses I wanted to put words with more personal meaning for both of us on there. For example, I painted 1 canvas in brown, 1 in sand, one in purple and one in turqoise. each color stands for one city, e.g. sand is dubai where we lived, turquoise the island on the maldives we vacationed at, etc. Now, I am trying to find out on my mac how I can change height and size of the font you suggested in your post. but can't find that function. plus, I don't have photoshop for mac.
Could you tell me how I could resize the font, maybe online or some freeware?
I need to finish these pictures by friday (= date of housewarming party!! *yikes*) so any help will be appreciated!
all the best from Austria,
Nathalie
I just linked this project on our diy projects list…come see!
Also, for online freeware, I use gimp instead of photoshop and inkscape instead of illustrator…free is good!
Shannon
www.akadesign.ca
These are great. I did a similar one with street names. I wish I would have seen these first. . . framing them seems so much easier. Well done.
I know…I'm just a year late…but I was wondering, what options you chose on the Staples printing services. I'm uploading a PDF to their website (18×24") and it's coming to $24! I see yours came to $5, so I was just curious. Thanks!
Lauren,
I think you're using their glossy photo paper and they charge by square foot on that… I just used regular paper – if I ever re-do them, I'll go for the good stuff, but for now, it works for me!
Jen