Globally Influential Lettering Artist
Like I mentioned, I had the chance to attend a demo from Gemma the day before CLS. Seeing her sketches in person was very inspiring, and it was amazing to be able to hear her talk about her story in a small group setting, as well as at the actual event. Her murals are intricate, and she is one my favorite people to follow on Instagram. A few takeaways from her talk:
- When talking about lettering and typography: When you lose something it becomes more valuable.
- She loves the human element of creating letterforms.
- After dropping out of law school, she discovered her love for typography after hand-setting type.
- Trends (like chalk lettering) began to influence her career, which made it feel like her work was driven by external forces. This led her to create work that she really enjoyed that was not trend-focused.
- Her work marries lettering and illustration, and allows her to get away from working on the computer all the time. (Though she loves drawing on her iPad as well.)