Jessica Hische, Lettering Virtuoso, Talks First Picture Book Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave
Jessica Hische’s lettering work is electric—every glyph crackles with talent. Playful but precise, elegant but approachable, Hische’s style has won her an impressive roster of clients, including Apple, Nike, Facebook, and The New York Times. An especially noteworthy project was her design of the tone-setting typeface for Wes Anderson’s wistful film about young love, Moonrise Kingdom.
Hische is also the illustrator of the Penguin Drop Caps series, a 26 volume ode to the classics. Each book cover in the series features one gorgeous drop cap—the first letter of the author’s last name. Hische’s designs highlight their book’s famous moments and themes. The cover of Lord of the Flies is a lowercase g that looks like a pair of broken glasses, referencing a crucial moment in William Golding’s dark tale.
Most recently, Hische wrote and illustrated Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave, a picture book that showcases her hand-lettering on every page.
B&N Kids spoke with Hische about her career, parenting, and all the wonderful things she learned from writing her first children’s book.
Tomorrow I'll Be Brave
Hardcover $18.99
Tomorrow I'll Be Brave
By
Jessica Hische
Illustrator
Jessica Hische
In Stock Online
Hardcover $18.99
When did you decide to write a picture book?
When did you decide to write a picture book?
I think I first decided I’d write a picture book toward the end of my childhood, when I knew I would be an artist, but before I knew what that meant and how it would manifest. It wasn’t until I had a child myself that I gave myself permission to make one. For all of my personal projects, I like to make art about things that I know or things that I’m learning about (and want to teach to others). It felt wrong to let myself make a book before I was immersed in the world of kids’ books by reading to my own daughter. Friends with kids told me that I would be flooded with inspiration for kid-related projects once I had kids of my own, and they weren’t wrong. I didn’t quite realize though how much it would shift my work passions and motivations.
What new things did writing and illustrating a picture book teach you about your craft?
For the writing, it made me realize just how difficult it is to pack meaning into a very small amount of words. Writing for kids is really fun but very challenging. It’s a huge exercise in editing more than anything. Weirdly enough, I think being very active on Twitter for years has trained me to be a better kids’ book writer. You wouldn’t think that random thoughts shouted into a void would help with that, but Twitter has made me a better editor of my own writing. And I have to thank my teenage self for writing all of that terrible poetry way back when. I feel like a teenager again writing (hopefully much better) rhyming poetry.
As far as the art, Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave reconnected me with my early professional self. It actually threw me for a pretty big loop—I realized how out of practice I was with illustration, but also how much I’d grown in terms of process, composition, color choices, etc. I spent a lot of time thinking to myself, “How come I haven’t been doing this for the last 8 years??” I used to love illustration so much and had all but abandoned it while working on commercial lettering projects. I definitely see myself hard-turning my work toward illustration again, and it feels really exciting but also a little scary.
Are there any books that inspired you as you were writing Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave?
There were a few, but not in the way you’d think! We had a lot of “Goodnight [fill in the blank]” books—some good, most not very good. The not so good ones were inspiring in that they laid out very precisely what I wanted to run away from while making my own book—making something with enough recognizable illustrations that it could sell, but without any real meaning or higher function. I wanted to make sure that whatever I made would be helpful to parents and children in some way. It seems totally silly to devote so much time, effort, and love toward a project, if at the core, there isn’t any substance.
In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector (Hand Lettering Books, Learn to Draw Books, Calligraphy Workbook for Beginners)
Hardcover $29.95
In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector (Hand Lettering Books, Learn to Draw Books, Calligraphy Workbook for Beginners)
By
Jessica Hische
Preface by
Louise Fili
Hardcover $29.95
What were some of your career goals starting out as an artist? Which ones have you met and which ones are you still working toward?
What were some of your career goals starting out as an artist? Which ones have you met and which ones are you still working toward?
It’s kind of hard to say! I think in the beginning, I didn’t really have lofty goals or expectations—I’d have them based on a project, but didn’t have an overarching vision for my career. I just wanted to get paid to make art, and make work that I was proud of. Because of that, I’ve achieved everything I could have dreamed of and so much more. At the time, I subscribed to (and still kind of subscribe to) a goal-achieving philosophy called “Tarzanning”—having a general direction you’re heading in, but getting there by grabbing the closest vine that seems right. It means your career path isn’t a straight line, and it zig-zags a lot, but it keeps your eyes open for new opportunities close by instead of those far away. I think now I’m starting to set more long term goals, but that might be because parenting has turned me into a bit of a planner.
Any advice for moms and dads of young artists?
Lean in to art—and to art school! Pursuing a career (or even just an education) in the arts means being encouraged to examine yourself—your hopes, dreams, and opinions—and share them with the world. Defending your art teaches you how to productively argue and explain your thought process. Making art is meditative and can calm anxieties during some of the more tumultuous times of your young life. I think being involved in the arts and being educated as an artist has made me a better citizen of the world.
Who or what makes you feel brave?
Having people in my life who love and support me (my husband, my family, my amazing friends) and give me a solid foundation to stand on makes me feel brave, adventurous, strong…all the things. Without that foundation, I crumble. When I have it, I can listen to the voice inside me that gets fired up about something and allow myself to fully give in to it—to run toward it with all my strength, even if it leads to unknown territory.
Any plans to continue writing for kids?
Already at least one more in the works! But I’d love to make this a new huge part of what I do. I’m just so full of ideas right now and need to give myself the space to explore them.
What’s next for you?
Loads and loads of travel! I’m planning the book tour for Brave with the help of one of my lettering clients, Alaska Airlines. It’s going to be BANANAS and there is a huge chance that between October and March, I’ll be coming to a city not too far from you!