These Artists are Acing the Art of Typography

By
Ben
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For writers, meaning is derived from text. But for letteres and typographers, its the letters themselves – their shape, texture, and color which calls for attention. With the rapidly advancing technology so has typography evolved and changed. The past decade alone saw many new talents share their craft through social media. Here are some of our favorite typography artists.

1. Lauren Hom

Lauren Hom’s work is both playful and striking, attracting brands like Starbucks, Google, AT&T, YouTube, TIME Magazine, and Microsoft, among many others. “I’ve been lettering for four years and they still bamboozle me all the time,” she admitted in an interview with Dumb Questions. Her work is printed on anything from cards to murals, but you can also catch some of her designs on her Instagram page.

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Creative freelancers – are you promoting your work & services enough?🤔 Probably not, but neither am I! This week’s new #HOMwork assignment to advertise your creative services on a sign as if they were specials on a restaurant menu board aims to fix that (don’t know what #HOMwork is? Scroll to the bottom of this caption👇🏽). As artists, many of us LOVE the process of creating but hate the promoting part…so let me go first and show you that it’s not so bad 🙋🏻‍♀️ . “HELLO my name is Lauren and I’m an expert at making brands stand out with hand lettering and creative marketing. My client list includes beloved brands like @target, @adobe, @vans @refinery29…and hopefully yours someday 😊. Have a project that could benefit from a hand lettered touch or partnership with me? Send an email with project details to 💌[email protected] to get the ball rolling! (P.S. Ad art directors: if a last-minute holiday campaign gets sold through and you need the work done in a comically short timeframe, still send me an email! It’ll co$t, but as someone who used to work in advertising…I totally get it & I’m here for you 😅)” . Often times, artists hesitate to do this kind of direct self-promotion because they think it's spamming their audience (but trust me, it's not to most people!). People follow you because they WANT to see your work and hear about YOU. The more you start believing this, the easier self-promotion will feel 👍🏽. Plus, getting creative with my concepts for self-promotion pieces (like this assignment does) makes me motivated to create the promo and even makes me excited (instead of nervous) to post it 🏆 . Wtf is #HOMwork, you ask? It’s a FREE weekly creative challenge that I email out to a community of 29,000 artists every Friday morning. ✨Sign up with the first link in my profile or at homsweethom.com/subscribe to join us!✨ People post their completed assignment on Instagram using the hashtag #HOMwork, and I feature my favorite posts in my Story throughout the week 👏🏽🏆 . . . . . #homwork #letteringchallenge #letteringchallenges #freelancingfemales #freelancedesigner #goodtype #risingtidesociety #showyourwork

A post shared by Lauren Hom (she/her) (@homsweethom) on

2. Gemma O’Brien

Australian artist Gemma O’Brien specializes in lettering, illustration, and installation. But the multi-talented artist is best recognized for her bold typeface and expressive calligraphy. Her work is featured in advertising campaigns, editorial publications, and large-scale murals around the world. “There’s a lot of type designers who are designing the fonts that we need to read efficiently,” she explained in an interview with 99U Magazine. “My work is more in this category of looking at words and thinking of them as art or bringing them into a picture as themselves.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2s5qHYF_dC/

3. Heather Hardison

Heather Hardison’s work is a hybrid of digital and analog. Specializing in food illustration and sign painting, she enjoys fuzing her passions together through murals and food packaging. “I think that it’s important for all designers to be good at drawing, even if their work is completely digital,” she told The Design Kids.

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