Genuinely, I love writing calligraphy for people. I like the smiles on their faces when I’m done. I like the questions that they ask and the way they reach out excitedly to take the piece of paper when I extend it to them. I like the way they hold it carefully while the ink is wet, like a tiny bird they found that had fallen from its nest.

Specialty is an confusing phenomenon. It’s commonly accepted that specializing in a niche field increases the quality of the contributions that an an individual can make. However, the concept of specializing—particularly when it comes to penmanship—is often seen as being at the expense of other knowledge and abilities. A specialist might excel in one avenue […]

It was 2014. I was struggling to find inspiration in some mundane task that I’d been assigned by a client who didn’t really need a graphic designer but wanted to use one anyway. I was taking it seriously, though; I wanted to be a legitimate designer, not some kid who scraped the Craigslist “gigs” section […]