Hand Lettering Found on the Streets of Scotland

This past weekend I took a little trip to the beautiful city of Edinburgh, Scotland. I only got to visit for a couple days but I fell in love with this country and cannot wait to go back someday to explore all of the areas I did not have time for. While I was exploring the streets of Scotland I noticed that a lot of the restaurants and pubs did their advertising through hand lettering on chalkboards. Hand lettering is one of my favorite design techniques. In recent years it has become quite the trend and I have been seeing it done more and more. Unlike America, Scotland does not have a lot of chain restaurants. It is mostly small little pubs that you have probably never heard of unless you live in Edinburgh, Scotland. These pieces of art that they place outside of their pub are their way of grabbing the attention of anyone walking down the street. With hand lettering they are able to make their advertisements more personal and welcoming to tourists of the area. I really enjoyed all of the hand lettering design that I found on the streets of Scotland and got to try some great pubs and restaurants that I probably would not have tried otherwise. 

Parlee Visits Parliament

Last saturday, June 20th, it was my third day in London and we took a little field trip to the beautiful Palace of Westminster a.k.a the beautiful building that has Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I got to take an audio tour that walked me through the Houses of Parliament explaining its history and beautiful interior design. Of course most of the tour did not allow for photos to be taken but as you can see from the photos that I was able to take, the inside of this Palace is absolutely amazing. Most of the images I took were from the second hallway that you enter called St. Stephen's Hall. St. Stephen's Hall is lined with statues of famous parliamentarians and paintings of the history of parliament. As you can see from the photos that I was able to take, this hallway had a lot of detail from the floor all the way to the ceiling. The rest of the Palace is amazing as well and if you ever get a chance to go on this tour DO IT, you will not regret it. The fact that this is still how the government in London is run fascinates me and I can honestly say if I lived in London I would probably be considering a different career path right about now. To walk into work everyday surrounded by so much history and incredible detail would be unreal. Everything about the design of this building is beautiful, inside and out. (fun fact: the term 'Parliament' comes from the French word 'parler' meaning to speak, sounds a lot like my last name so that's exciting)