My First Live Lettering Experience
Some events may benefit from hiring a lettering artist to create hand-lettered phrases onto take- home gifts for attendees.
I had the chance to do just that at the Women of Power Summit at the Mirage Convention Center in Las Vegas where I partnered with Prudential and Satellite Office, working along with the team of IMG Live. I was one of the lettering artist working alongside with the talented Ann Chen @Annlettering.
Things I learned from this experience:
Think fast! One of the things that was very challenging for me was that you had to think very fast about the layout, style, colors and overall what you are going to create. The guest will give you a random phase or quote so you have around 5 to 10 minutes to create an eye catching piece.
You don't have a Ruler, a pencil or an eraser. You will need to stick to what you’re comfortable creating because you can erase any mistakes, what you create is what you give. That is why it comes in handy to practice more often just using markers to see what comes out naturally.
Markers and the Medium: Another challenging part of doing live lettering will depend on the medium where you will be lettering. So for instance, I lettered on canvas pouches which didn't really absorbed the ink quickly so had to go over with the marker several times.
Multi-tasking: Multi-tasking is one skill you must have when doing lettering on-site because the attendants will be speaking with you while you’re lettering. If you’re new, it might be a little bit of a struggle but once you are comfortable with your lettering skills, multi-tasking will be easier.
Additional Requests: You might get additional requests, like illustrations or more letterings in the same items. Try to always say yes if you are able to squeeze it or if not you can give them the option to come back if you have a line of people waiting.
Finally, have fun, do your best and don’t stress!
