Grow, Branch Out & Flourish!
I’m writing this letter from my temporary accommodation in Barcelona. It’s already been two months, and I’m moving again in a couple of weeks. This time, it’s an easy one: from the south to the north of the city until the end of the year.
What’s been happening over the last two months?
Loads! We celebrated a close friend’s birthday by watching Xavier Rudd live, where I cried like a baby; we danced like there was no tomorrow at another friend’s birthday party; we picked a lot of mushrooms with my parents, who are total pros at it; and we’ve had many friends visiting from Australia, the US, the UK, and, most recently, from Portugal.
On a professional note, I collaborated for the second time with design studio Porta Rocha; crafted two editorial images for Design Feast; worked with Black Inc. Books on a limited-edition book for the upcoming Sydney Biennale; participated in a group show called Recipes For Connecting as part of Barcelona Design Week; gave two guest lectures as part of Type Design Asia and Practica Program; wrote an essay reflecting on my last decade in design; and just released a new self-paced course called Intro to Script Brush Pen Calligraphy.
Related to the above, I recently spoke to the Typism Community, and I’d like to share one of the Q&A responses with all of you.
What advice do you have for lettering designers looking to diversify their income streams beyond freelancing?
For the first eight years of my independent career, I taught calligraphy from my studio in Naarm (Melbourne). This became my main income source and gave me great satisfaction, keeping me very social on a weekly basis (which I love and need) and providing stability, as well as the power to decline projects that weren’t the best fit.
Currently, I offer pre-recorded calligraphy courses, live online group and private tuitions, license my illustration work, sell limited edition art prints, monetise my YouTube channel—where I offer free educational resources—and work on commercial commissions. The balance between passive and active income streams shifts constantly, much like modern life itself.
Additionally, I am the author and editor of this bi-monthly newsletter that has been going strong for over a decade. This has been instrumental in keeping me accountable, creating a visual diary of my interests and motivations, and improving my English writing skills, a language I only learned at the age of twenty-nine.
Finally, I mentor RMIT University students and guide them on their journeys. While these last two activities don’t generate revenue, they’re integral to my practice.
Lesson Learned:
Diversifying your income streams can be a major pillar of a sustainable creative practice.
“The journey without a distance into the now” Eckhart Tolle
My heart is full. Barcelona is giving me exactly what I need right now, and that’s where I’m striving to be—more in the now and less in the past or the future.
Take a good care of yourself this week. Sending you and Valencia all my love, Maria xx
On the third part of this newsletter, you’ll find a great educational lecture by Romina Hernández; an inspiring conversation with Astrid Stavro; and a new book called Black, Queer and Untold—A new archive of designers, Artists & Trailblazers by talented artist and designer Jon Key.
E X T R A $
For those seeking a more emotive narrative of my last two months, you’ll find a personal video describing our nomadic life, plus a few extra links at the end of this letter.
Grow, Branch Out & Flourish!
This month, I’m teaching my second in-person course at Tipo-G Typography School of Barcelona. The course, titled Script Alphabets: Grow, Branch Out and Flourish, is a twenty-four-hour workshop divided into three parts:
Writing a Connected Script:
Introduction to Script alphabets
Writing demos (Copperplate calligraphy minuscules & simpler capitals)
Contrast, connections, cursivity, shading hierarchies, and ratio variations
Introduction to Script Font Design:
Drawing some key characters for a future typographic development
Practical demos on vector letter drawing in Adobe Illustrator and Glyphs App
Script alphabets design principles
Hand Script Lettering:
Hand lettering exercises
Variations in ascenders and descenders, swashes, and flourishes
Presentation: Animating monoline Script lettering with Adobe After Effects
When: November 15, 16, 22, 23, 2024
Where: In person at Tipo-G in Barcelona
Capacity: Maximum of 8 students
Language: Spanish
Celebrating a Decade of Creativity, Design & Letterforms
2024 marks my 10th anniversary as an independent creative business of one. Earlier this year, I drafted my reflections on the past decade, which turned into an eight-thousand-word essay! I revisited this long essay, polished it, added a few important things I initially left out, and have just published it on my site.
For those of you interested in reading it, here’s a heads-up: sit down comfortably with a cup of tea in hand—it’s f*ing lengthy; life and work are closely intertwined; and it’s very honest. At the end of this essay, you’ll find a range of resources and a bibliography from people who have been instrumental in my personal and professional journey.
Romina Hernández via Type Electives Lecture Series
Juan Villanueva and Lynne Yun begin by sharing the basic concepts of Font Engineering and QA. They will then be joined by Romina, type designer and font engineer working in Mexico City. Together, they’ll dive deeper and engage in a lively conversation answering community-submitted questions, exploring topics such as “How important is it to stick to 1000 unit grid, when is it appropriate to change this?”, “Is there a system or methodical approach one can take when kerning?” Enjoy this educational lecture!
Embracing Chaos and Stillness: Astrid Stavro’s Design Philosophy via Creative Characters Podcast
In this episode, Monotype’s Executive Creative Director, Tom Foley, sits down with renowned graphic designer Astrid Stavro to explore her captivating journey. Astrid grew up amidst the hum of printing presses in her father’s print shop in Trieste, Italy. She recounts the profound influence of her family’s publishing heritage, her deep-seated love for books, and pivotal moments such as her studies at St. Martins and her discovery of Interview magazine. Astrid opens up about her recent ADHD diagnosis, the delicate dance between chaos and tranquility in her creative process, and her responsibilities as Chair of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD).
Queer, Black Untold Stories
Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a creative Black Queer kid, Jon Key imagined himself as a professional artist and designer. But in lecture halls and critiques in art school, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity — the stories and artifacts that reflected him.
Jon started asking himself questions:
What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer? A Queer graphic designer? Someone from the South? Could his identity be communicated through a poster or a book? How could identity be archived in a design canon that has consistently erased contributions by designers who were not white, straight, and male?
In Black, Queer, & Untold, acclaimed designer and artist Jon Key delves into these questions and manifests a book he (and so many others) needed when they were coming up. Black, Queer & Untold pays tribute to the incredible designers, artists, and people who came before. Jon offers these stories an enduring, reverential stage – and in doing so, gifts us a book that immediately takes its place among the creative arts canon. Published by Levine Querido.
For over ten years, I’m the author and editor of a bi-monthly email newsletter announcing calligraphy courses, community events, type related matter and other topics which often include creative mental health and fostering women in the industry. Subscribe here and join my journey!