In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector

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If I had to represent my career visually, it would look like a constellation—a line, interrupted occasionally by bursts of energy that slightly or dramatically shift the direction of the path. Finding design was one of these bursts—an ah-ha moment, reaffirming all the decisions I had made up to that point.

Procrastiwork is a term I made up to describe the work that I do when I’m putting off the work I’m supposed to be doing. It originated from an interview I gave in 2008 on a website called Humble Pied—I was asked to give one piece of advice to other designers, and the advice I gave was, “The work you do while you’re procrastinating is probably the w

Even on italicized letters, the points are plotted on the extrema, not on the “top” and “bottom” of the letter, as you may have guessed.

You can use this to your advantage if you really want a client to pick a particular version, colorizing only that sketch (and showing a few color options), which lets them clearly know it’s your favorite.

Deciding on a lettering style or styles can be difficult if you’re constantly envisioning the end result instead of making small decisions as you go.

Crossbars do not need to fall at the same height. If you’re shooting for perfectly centered crossbars, it’s likely that they’ll all end up in different places—the A will be lowest (to account for the small amount of white space in the interior apex of the letter), the E will be a little higher than the F (because the F has so much white space below

Just absorb as much as you can and document the interesting bits—the places where an artist did something unexpected and incredibly imaginative—for use in your work later.

When making decorative lettering, the decorative bits, no matter how over the top they may be, should make sense and feel like natural extensions of the letterforms themselves, not tacked on and unnecessary.

The Clothes When I first started lettering, I cared more about the clothes than anything else—I used the same basic skeleton over and over again, tacking on serifs and swashes where I saw fit. After a few months, I started to realize that all my work had a sameness to it. Instead of creating distinct lettering styles, I created one style, with many