Type Exploration
In my free time, I love exploring expressive typography. I often use Adobe Fresco to hand-draw letters and experiment with layout, treating type as both communication and art. I'm especially drawn to decorative and illustrative styles, and I find endless inspiration in the work of designers like Jessica Hische. These personal projects are where I play, take risks, and let my creativity lead the way.
Process Study: Custom Lettering & Iteration Workflow
The Animation Approach: To keep my workflow efficient, I've started treating lettering lockups like animation cells—layering sketches and tracing over them to quickly modify the type style without redrawing the baseline layout from scratch. I prefer doing this directly in notebooks because the thinner paper makes tracing effortless, and the simple lines or grids help me line up the letterforms perfectly.
Color Coding: I use a two-step sketching process to map out ideas. Yellow pencil establishes the initial layout, and blue pencil redefines the edges and brings the letters to life.
Style Exploration: Tracing allowed me to experiment with a "fiery/evil" alternative style over my original layout without risking or ruining the first draft.
Negative Space: Used marker to focus entirely on drawing the negative space, effectively pushing the background back to make the letterforms pop forward.
Mother's Day Gift
Made this engraved mirror as a Mother’s Day gift, inspired by a long quote my mom used to sing to us when we were little. Translating a lengthy, wordy quote into a balanced layout is always a challenge, so I looked to Jessica Hische’s work for inspiration on composition and vibe. This project was a great opportunity to experiment with intricate flourishes and scale, figuring out how to make a dense piece of text feel elegant and intentional on a reflective surface.
Lola's Birthday Present
Made this custom t-shirt as a birthday gift for my friend Lola, inspired by Pepe the Frog and her unique music taste. I started by sketching the design on paper, projected it onto the shirt to nail the placement, and hand-airbrushed the final piece.
