A designer-author-illustrator-creative director-writer-small press-brand, Kurtz’s brand, rooted in honesty, humor, and a little darkness. One of our favorite creations by him is a book dedicated to life advice for creatives. Describing it as the most sincere work he’s ever done, the book is a fully handwritten essay collection that touches on what it really means to be a creative person, and all the energy and fear and internal jumble that comes with that.

But his advice can also be relevant to non-artistic folk as well. “Creativity is a huge, giant word,” he remarked once in an interview with the Creative Independent. “I don’t think creativity is inherently good. I don’t think it’s inherently anything. Actually, I’m not even sure if creativity is the drive to make things, or if it’s the mechanism that allows us to make things. It’s so big, and the word means so many different things to different people.”

“People say that to me all the time. ‘I wish I was creative,'” he notes. “Everyone is creative. Creativity is not a magical skill that you have or don’t have. I think creativity is one of the big, vague things that we all have that manifests itself in very different ways.”

According to Kurtz he tries to remind people that creativity isn’t just writing or drawing, and it’s not just for artists. It also doesn’t have to be labeled anything. “Really, everything I’ve ever done has come from this place of me helping myself, and then letting other people into it,” he notes.

You’ll want his positive spirit in your feed and life.

The post Adam J. Kurtz Will Remind You to Be Kind to Yourself appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

But whether it’s a large-scale public mural on the streets of NYC, a marker scrawling on a Uniqlo t-shirt, or writing personal stories on Instagram, Goodman hopes that his work is a catalyzer for dialogues about difficult topics such as love, heartbreak, politics, race, therapy, and mental health.

“A lot of designers try to impress other designers with the obscure stuff,” he remarked once in an interview with Magenta. “I think maybe early on I thought that was cool, but I no longer find that interesting or compelling. I want to make work that resonates with a lot of people,” he stressed, adding that it’s important to consider who you’re making your work for. “Are you making it for other designers, or are you making it for people in the world?” asks Goodman.

But with clients that include giants like Google, Samsung, Uniqlo, MoMA, Airbnb, Netflix, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, Goodman might be speaking to both high brow and low brow crowds. Believing that the greatest joy as a designer and an artist is the ability to connect to another human emotionally through his work and words, he treats design as a practice rather than a profession.

“I work all the time, but it feels normal,” he says. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I hate those quotes about loving what you do, but it’s true. When you’re stimulated by your work and you’re running a business for yourself, it doesn’t really feel like work; you’re just doing it.” Words to live by.

The post Timothy Goodman Finds Meaning in Words and More Words appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

“It took me a while to define what my own style would look like,” admitted Griesinger in an interview with The Design Kids. According to Griesinger she has two distinct styles that she juggles between: one being more line-based and realistic; the other more of a geometric-based style of illustration. Her recommendation to other designers? “Try everything, stick to what most successfully illustrates your ideas and comes off more naturally to you.”

Her playful approach to design and illustration easily comes across when scrolling through her Instagram page. According to Griesinger, her strength as an illustrator comes from her grounding in classical academic drawing and painting which she learnt while living in Belarus.

“Drawing, painting, any kind of creativity were always encouraged in me since young age,” she explains. “Through my childhood, I distinctly remember drawing two kind of things – funny animals and characters (before I started to read) and words and letters (after learning how to read). I think it is only natural that after years of practicing both I became a greeting card graphic designer and illustrator.”

Show her some love on Instagram.

The post Olga Griesinger Combines Typography and Illustration—and the Result is Marvelous appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Hardison graduated from College of Design at North Carolina State University in 2009, with a degree in Art & Design. After graduation and with little prospect of getting a job in the midst of the financial crisis, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue a creative career. 

“I knew I needed to learn more, and specialize to kickstart my career, so I sought out an apprenticeship at New Bohemia Signs to learn about lettering and sign painting,” she later recalled in an interview with The Design Kids. “I slowly grew my sign painting and illustration skills in tandem,” she adds. 

Her intuition proved right and job offers came pouring in. “These days I keep busy with my illustration and sign painting jobs,” says Hardison. “But I’m always looking for ways to bring those skills together. So far, murals, and food packaging have been two of my favorite ways to accomplish that.”

Her tip to other aspiring creatives? Find your voice and refine it, instead of following style trends. “When work is all about style, it’s not that interesting,” she notes. “It also becomes dated and oversaturated very quickly. Style is sort of like an Instagram filter that can be applied to the work; it’s very surface level.” Take a look at some of her timeless pieces in the gallery below.

The post Heather Hardison Cultivated Her Creative Voice Through Sign Painting appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

But when it comes to the creative process itself, Milan surprisingly describes it as “basic”. “The hardest part of my job is finding a good quote or a word,” he relayed in an interview with Wix. “I could spend hours looking for a good one.” Once he has a text, he starts making sketches in different styles. After choosing the best one, he then proceeds to trace it with a marker, brush or digitally on a tablet. Finally, he puts the lettering on a photo or image, adding some finishing touches.

“I usually work with tablets like Wacom and iPad Pro with the Apple pencil,” he says, describing his toolbox, “but I also love working with Crayola markers and Tombow brush pens. They’re such great tools for every lettering artist. As for the digital process, I usually work with Photoshop for different cool effects.”

His different approach to both typography and design has attracted brands as big as Apple, Huawei, Facebook, Pepsi, and Adobe, all of which have commissioned work from him. You’d want to see what the hype is all about:

The post This Typography Artist Experiments with Colors, Textures, and Shapes appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

If lettering is all about that personal touch, Griffo’s got it in spades. Her posts are playful and inspiring without being too preachy. But she admits it took her much practice to get to where she is. “As a graphic designer, typography has been a passion of mine as long as I can remember,” she admitted. “I used to write, and rewrite my class notes until they were as close to perfect as possible. I learned so much about the art of type as a design student, and I interned at a letterpress studio to learn more about the origin of type. I wanted to learn more about hand lettering because I knew it would bring a unique and personalized touch to the work I was doing with my design clients.”

Her curiosity about hand lettering would blossom into a full-time job a while later. “I took the class as a creative outlet,” she says. “While it related directly to the work I do daily, it was a step away from the computer, a new challenge. I was excited to have some direction, and someone to inspire and motivate me.”

Now she motivates others through her writing. It seems we’ve come full circle!

The post Ilana Griffo’s Writing Will Keep You Motivated appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

“I once read this quote [by philosopher Calvin Seerveld] that said as an artist it’s important to ‘fire your art until it emits sparks that warm, or burn, those it reaches,’ and for me that how I see my work and my responsibility as an artist,” said Maciver in an interview with Huck Magazine.

With almost 100k followers on Instagram, her art reaches both online and offline audiences. But when it comes to the power of words, Maciver turns to her faith. “In terms of words that get me through the day, it’d definitely be The Bible – that’s also added to my understanding of the power of words,” she explains. “Naturally, I’m a bit of a pessimist so it helps to meditate on words of truth and encouragement.”

According to Maciver, the creative process begins with choosing the right words. “Before I even start painting a wall, I think a lot about the concept and what I want to communicate,” she explains. “I love the colors and the patterns and all that, but that’s almost secondary to what I want to say.”

Tune in:

The post Lakwena Maciver’s Murals Will Lift You Higher appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

With experience, so came fame. A number of her projects have received the Award of Typographic Excellence from the New York Type Directors Club, and in 2016 she was named one of PRINT Magazine’s New Visual Artists: 15 under 30. She has also collaborated with numerous global brands and publications including Apple, Google, Adobe, and The New York Times. But her typography art also garnered the attention of online fans, with well over 200k followers on Instagram.

But oddly enough, O’Brien didn’t start out as a typography enthusiast. In fact, she originally went to law school before realizing she needed to do something creative. It was only after switching to a design degree that she fell in love with typography, having learned hand-set type in a letterpress studio. “From that point forward I have been developing a practice that sits between art, illustration, design, and typography,” she stated in an interview with PRINT Magazine.

Her art takes many shapes and forms, but the end result is always delighting. Take a look for yourself.

The post Loose, Energetic, and Bold: The Typography Art of Gemma O’Brien appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

“Before, I found I was making work that I felt wasn’t for my community; it wasn’t for my family to enjoy, it was talking to the community that I wasn’t a part of,” she went on to explain. And that can be really alienating. As a whole, the art world is very alienating to specific groups of people: people of color and people who, maybe, don’t have certain levels of education. So, I like that the layered meaning [in my art] is for people who are from my own community who aren’t necessarily the art world community.”

Drawing for her mixed background, Sanchez finds a way to balance between the form and message she wishes to convey. “I always enjoyed doing paintings, but for whatever reason I wanted to do something that was totally new and at an experimental level,” she said. “I slowly realized that I could still do something that was experimental in painting through the messaging and through the way that I paint.”

Look closer. Can you decipher the message?

The post Gabriella Sanchez’s Art is a Colorful Mishmash appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

Her original series was made as part of the #36daysoftype challenge which invited designers, illustrators, and graphic artists to express their particular interpretation of letters and numbers. “Let’s start the #36daysoftype with this ‘A’ as in ‘Amatriciana,’” wrote the Barcelona-based artist under her first illustration of the letter A. “This traditional roman dish takes its name from the town of Amatrice and the first written record of it comes from the roman cook Francesco Leonardi who served Pasta all’Amatriciana to the Pope in 1816,” she explained. “Yes, it’s gonna be alllll about Italian cuisine my friends!”

Since graduating from Iuav with an MA in Visual and Multimedia Communication, specializing in Interaction Design, Rossi works as an interaction and UX designer. But she still takes her time when it comes to drawing, sharing her graphic illustrations with her small but dedicated following on Instagram.

Enjoy!

The post Artist Interprets the English Alphabet as Italian Cuisine appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

A designer-author-illustrator-creative director-writer-small press-brand, Kurtz’s brand, rooted in honesty, humor, and a little darkness. One of our favorite creations by him is a book dedicated to life advice for creatives. Describing it as the most sincere work he’s ever done, the book is a fully handwritten essay collection that touches on what it really means to be a creative person, and all the energy and fear and internal jumble that comes with that.

But his advice can also be relevant to non-artistic folk as well. “Creativity is a huge, giant word,” he remarked once in an interview with the Creative Independent. “I don’t think creativity is inherently good. I don’t think it’s inherently anything. Actually, I’m not even sure if creativity is the drive to make things, or if it’s the mechanism that allows us to make things. It’s so big, and the word means so many different things to different people.”

“People say that to me all the time. ‘I wish I was creative,'” he notes. “Everyone is creative. Creativity is not a magical skill that you have or don’t have. I think creativity is one of the big, vague things that we all have that manifests itself in very different ways.”

According to Kurtz he tries to remind people that creativity isn’t just writing or drawing, and it’s not just for artists. It also doesn’t have to be labeled anything. “Really, everything I’ve ever done has come from this place of me helping myself, and then letting other people into it,” he notes.

You’ll want his positive spirit in your feed and life.

The post Adam J. Kurtz Will Remind You to Be Kind to Yourself appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

But whether it’s a large-scale public mural on the streets of NYC, a marker scrawling on a Uniqlo t-shirt, or writing personal stories on Instagram, Goodman hopes that his work is a catalyzer for dialogues about difficult topics such as love, heartbreak, politics, race, therapy, and mental health.

“A lot of designers try to impress other designers with the obscure stuff,” he remarked once in an interview with Magenta. “I think maybe early on I thought that was cool, but I no longer find that interesting or compelling. I want to make work that resonates with a lot of people,” he stressed, adding that it’s important to consider who you’re making your work for. “Are you making it for other designers, or are you making it for people in the world?” asks Goodman.

But with clients that include giants like Google, Samsung, Uniqlo, MoMA, Airbnb, Netflix, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, Goodman might be speaking to both high brow and low brow crowds. Believing that the greatest joy as a designer and an artist is the ability to connect to another human emotionally through his work and words, he treats design as a practice rather than a profession.

“I work all the time, but it feels normal,” he says. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I hate those quotes about loving what you do, but it’s true. When you’re stimulated by your work and you’re running a business for yourself, it doesn’t really feel like work; you’re just doing it.” Words to live by.

The post Timothy Goodman Finds Meaning in Words and More Words appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

“It took me a while to define what my own style would look like,” admitted Griesinger in an interview with The Design Kids. According to Griesinger she has two distinct styles that she juggles between: one being more line-based and realistic; the other more of a geometric-based style of illustration. Her recommendation to other designers? “Try everything, stick to what most successfully illustrates your ideas and comes off more naturally to you.”

Her playful approach to design and illustration easily comes across when scrolling through her Instagram page. According to Griesinger, her strength as an illustrator comes from her grounding in classical academic drawing and painting which she learnt while living in Belarus.

“Drawing, painting, any kind of creativity were always encouraged in me since young age,” she explains. “Through my childhood, I distinctly remember drawing two kind of things – funny animals and characters (before I started to read) and words and letters (after learning how to read). I think it is only natural that after years of practicing both I became a greeting card graphic designer and illustrator.”

Show her some love on Instagram.

The post Olga Griesinger Combines Typography and Illustration—and the Result is Marvelous appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Hardison graduated from College of Design at North Carolina State University in 2009, with a degree in Art & Design. After graduation and with little prospect of getting a job in the midst of the financial crisis, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue a creative career. 

“I knew I needed to learn more, and specialize to kickstart my career, so I sought out an apprenticeship at New Bohemia Signs to learn about lettering and sign painting,” she later recalled in an interview with The Design Kids. “I slowly grew my sign painting and illustration skills in tandem,” she adds. 

Her intuition proved right and job offers came pouring in. “These days I keep busy with my illustration and sign painting jobs,” says Hardison. “But I’m always looking for ways to bring those skills together. So far, murals, and food packaging have been two of my favorite ways to accomplish that.”

Her tip to other aspiring creatives? Find your voice and refine it, instead of following style trends. “When work is all about style, it’s not that interesting,” she notes. “It also becomes dated and oversaturated very quickly. Style is sort of like an Instagram filter that can be applied to the work; it’s very surface level.” Take a look at some of her timeless pieces in the gallery below.

The post Heather Hardison Cultivated Her Creative Voice Through Sign Painting appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

But when it comes to the creative process itself, Milan surprisingly describes it as “basic”. “The hardest part of my job is finding a good quote or a word,” he relayed in an interview with Wix. “I could spend hours looking for a good one.” Once he has a text, he starts making sketches in different styles. After choosing the best one, he then proceeds to trace it with a marker, brush or digitally on a tablet. Finally, he puts the lettering on a photo or image, adding some finishing touches.

“I usually work with tablets like Wacom and iPad Pro with the Apple pencil,” he says, describing his toolbox, “but I also love working with Crayola markers and Tombow brush pens. They’re such great tools for every lettering artist. As for the digital process, I usually work with Photoshop for different cool effects.”

His different approach to both typography and design has attracted brands as big as Apple, Huawei, Facebook, Pepsi, and Adobe, all of which have commissioned work from him. You’d want to see what the hype is all about:

The post This Typography Artist Experiments with Colors, Textures, and Shapes appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

If lettering is all about that personal touch, Griffo’s got it in spades. Her posts are playful and inspiring without being too preachy. But she admits it took her much practice to get to where she is. “As a graphic designer, typography has been a passion of mine as long as I can remember,” she admitted. “I used to write, and rewrite my class notes until they were as close to perfect as possible. I learned so much about the art of type as a design student, and I interned at a letterpress studio to learn more about the origin of type. I wanted to learn more about hand lettering because I knew it would bring a unique and personalized touch to the work I was doing with my design clients.”

Her curiosity about hand lettering would blossom into a full-time job a while later. “I took the class as a creative outlet,” she says. “While it related directly to the work I do daily, it was a step away from the computer, a new challenge. I was excited to have some direction, and someone to inspire and motivate me.”

Now she motivates others through her writing. It seems we’ve come full circle!

The post Ilana Griffo’s Writing Will Keep You Motivated appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

“I once read this quote [by philosopher Calvin Seerveld] that said as an artist it’s important to ‘fire your art until it emits sparks that warm, or burn, those it reaches,’ and for me that how I see my work and my responsibility as an artist,” said Maciver in an interview with Huck Magazine.

With almost 100k followers on Instagram, her art reaches both online and offline audiences. But when it comes to the power of words, Maciver turns to her faith. “In terms of words that get me through the day, it’d definitely be The Bible – that’s also added to my understanding of the power of words,” she explains. “Naturally, I’m a bit of a pessimist so it helps to meditate on words of truth and encouragement.”

According to Maciver, the creative process begins with choosing the right words. “Before I even start painting a wall, I think a lot about the concept and what I want to communicate,” she explains. “I love the colors and the patterns and all that, but that’s almost secondary to what I want to say.”

Tune in:

The post Lakwena Maciver’s Murals Will Lift You Higher appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

With experience, so came fame. A number of her projects have received the Award of Typographic Excellence from the New York Type Directors Club, and in 2016 she was named one of PRINT Magazine’s New Visual Artists: 15 under 30. She has also collaborated with numerous global brands and publications including Apple, Google, Adobe, and The New York Times. But her typography art also garnered the attention of online fans, with well over 200k followers on Instagram.

But oddly enough, O’Brien didn’t start out as a typography enthusiast. In fact, she originally went to law school before realizing she needed to do something creative. It was only after switching to a design degree that she fell in love with typography, having learned hand-set type in a letterpress studio. “From that point forward I have been developing a practice that sits between art, illustration, design, and typography,” she stated in an interview with PRINT Magazine.

Her art takes many shapes and forms, but the end result is always delighting. Take a look for yourself.

The post Loose, Energetic, and Bold: The Typography Art of Gemma O’Brien appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

“Before, I found I was making work that I felt wasn’t for my community; it wasn’t for my family to enjoy, it was talking to the community that I wasn’t a part of,” she went on to explain. And that can be really alienating. As a whole, the art world is very alienating to specific groups of people: people of color and people who, maybe, don’t have certain levels of education. So, I like that the layered meaning [in my art] is for people who are from my own community who aren’t necessarily the art world community.”

Drawing for her mixed background, Sanchez finds a way to balance between the form and message she wishes to convey. “I always enjoyed doing paintings, but for whatever reason I wanted to do something that was totally new and at an experimental level,” she said. “I slowly realized that I could still do something that was experimental in painting through the messaging and through the way that I paint.”

Look closer. Can you decipher the message?

The post Gabriella Sanchez’s Art is a Colorful Mishmash appeared first on Wallpaper Data.

Her original series was made as part of the #36daysoftype challenge which invited designers, illustrators, and graphic artists to express their particular interpretation of letters and numbers. “Let’s start the #36daysoftype with this ‘A’ as in ‘Amatriciana,’” wrote the Barcelona-based artist under her first illustration of the letter A. “This traditional roman dish takes its name from the town of Amatrice and the first written record of it comes from the roman cook Francesco Leonardi who served Pasta all’Amatriciana to the Pope in 1816,” she explained. “Yes, it’s gonna be alllll about Italian cuisine my friends!”

Since graduating from Iuav with an MA in Visual and Multimedia Communication, specializing in Interaction Design, Rossi works as an interaction and UX designer. But she still takes her time when it comes to drawing, sharing her graphic illustrations with her small but dedicated following on Instagram.

Enjoy!

The post Artist Interprets the English Alphabet as Italian Cuisine appeared first on Wallpaper Data.