It’s through this research that the primordial ooze of ideas is formed—an ooze that will eventually evolve into concepts through brainstorming.

It may take some figuring out, but once you break down your process into distinct stages with rough timelines for each, it will become a lot less intimidating to start projects and also a lot easier to manage your time, come up with price quotes for projects, and so on.

My new flexible schedule allowed me to work on side projects, one of which became the biggest burst on my career constellation: Daily Drop Cap.

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.

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.

Once I’ve absorbed as much as I can about the project and let it coagulate for a night or two, I sit down for a brainstorming session.

When I send these sketches to the client, I hardly ever colorize them. I want the client to focus on the layout and letterforms, and not be distracted by color. Color is so powerful and so subjective that if I colorized my sketches, the client would, without a doubt, gravitate toward the version in the color palette they like the most, even if they

Visual research is something that should be a part of your day-to-day life, not just something that you do at the start of a project. Be a sponge; absorb everything around you. Read books that have nothing to do with design and lettering, visit art and science museums, pay attention to fashion, stop to admire interesting graffiti or amateur sign

endless late-night trips to Wawa for shitty coffee and sandwiches.