Illustrator and designer David Milan fell in love with the art of hand lettering and modern calligraphy after encountering graffiti. “Everything started when I was 15 years old as a graffiti writer,” said the now renowned lettering artist in an interview with Lettering Daily. “Then I began to feel some kind of love for the letters and a couple years ago I started making letters again, and here’s when my life begins.”
Now he creates visual work including typography, lettering, and illustrations for clients around the world such as MTV, CNN, and HBO; while his Instagram page is equally trendy, with more than 132k followers.
“The hardest part of my job is finding a good quote or a word,” he admits. “I could spend hours looking for a good one. Since I have the phrase or word I start to make the sketches in different styles, after having chosen the best one I proceed to do it with a marker, brush or directly digital on a tablet. Finally, I place the lettering on a photo or image.”
“I think the strokes are very important element in order to create a nice lettering piece, also the thickness and kerning are very important,” he says. “Sometimes I have the same mistakes, I usually see different works of great artists to have a better idea of how to do it and that’s how I improve my work!”
Strongly influenced by his background in graffiti, his calligraphy art is bold, vibrant, and full of movement. Take a look at some of our favorite works by him and follow his Instagram page for more.
