Got a Burning Question?
In my career as a designer and letterer, I get asked a lot of questions (I mean, who doesn't get asked questions?) Many times, they are the same, but other times I am asked truly interesting queries about what I do and why. I've decided to collect a few of the most common, and most fascinating to answer in one fell swoop! Let's do this.
Question: What do Designers do?
Everything. No seriously, everything. The thing is a lot of people think that "Graphic Design" is a binary job title that describes making things look pretty, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Graphic Design is the umbrella under which many different fields of artistry fall, such as: User experience design, user interface design, motion design, experience design, exhibition design, print design, 3D design, layout design, branding design...you catch my drift.
So what one designer does may be completely different from what another one does - we each have our specialties, much like those in medicine do. One doctor could be a Pediatric Surgeon, whilst another is an Oncologist.
I suppose if you want a short answer: We create things that impact human behavior.
Question: How does one go about determining the best secondary fonts that complement a chosen font of a logo/brand?
This was one of the more interesting questions I've gotten, and the simplest way I can answer this is:
Work with a designer with a special interest in Typography. Why? Because choosing a secondary font relies on a lot of factors that these types of designers would know best how to navigate.
Unfortunately it isn't just a matter of scrolling through a font library and clicking what one you think looks prettiest. Pairing typefaces has rules, just as any other sort of design decision does, and it relies heavily on the primary font.
Is the primary typeface a serif, or san-serif? What era is it from? What style is it? What weight is it going to be set at? What emotion does it elicit, and what emotion are you trying to elicit for the brand? Etc. Consulting a designer can help you navigate through this to find the perfect paired typefaces for your specific brand.
Question: I imagine hand lettering requires steady hands...are you naturally pretty steady or did you have to train yourself? Any recommendations?
Love this question! Lettering can definitely require a steady hand, but luckily you can also use rulers to help you out depending on the letter style you're using. I've also seen some letterers keep the imperfect lines and incorporate it into their personal style of lettering, so both clean crisp lines and human lines have their place!
For me, I used to have pretty shaky hands, but as I started doing more pieces I guess my hand became more used to the positions I would put it in to finish them?
If you have an unsteady hand the best recommendation I can give you is to run alphabet drills. Get your hand used to being used in this manner, and warm it up like any other muscle, and don't fret if your lines aren't perfect - they don't have to be to be good lettering! Everyone has their own style.
Question: How to you get or stay inspired when you're just not feeling it?
It depends on the situation. If I have a deadline to meet, and I'm just not feeling it, I bargain with myself and section off my working time with my reward time. I.e I will tell myself "If we do work on this deadline for a solid hour we get xx amount of minutes to play a game" and then work on a timer.
If it's simply a period of designer's block, I try not to force it because I know I'll just be upset with the end result if I do. When this happens, I'll try to do some things I enjoy, and take care of myself. Then, I'll hop on instagram and scroll through my feed of way more talented letterers than myself to spark my desire to improve and be as good as they are.
It may not always be the healthiest thing to do, but I'm only human.
Question: What is your design process like and How would your other clients describe working with you?
Oooh, a two-for! My design process depends on the type of project so I'll break them down into categories: Traditional design and lettering.
For my traditional design it starts with exploratory conversations. Then the process goes as follows:
Research -> idea development -> thumbnail sketching -> feedback -> refinement -> feedback -> refinement -> feed back -> Final touches -> Deliverable.
For Lettering:
Idea -> layout grid -> skeleton sketch -> structure sketch -> final sketch -> outline ink -> detail ink -> scan -> Adobe illustrator -> Photoshop -> Final.
As far as my clients, you can check out what they've had to say here!
I think that's enough for the first Q&A Corner don't you? If I keep getting more interesting questions, I'll plan on a second Q&A corner in the future. Til next time!
