David Milan’s Lettering Art Cuts to the Chase

Illustrator and designer David Milan is a modern-day lettering artist, having fallen in love with the art of the written word through graffiti. His graffiti-inspired art soon caught the attention of others, with selected clients like MTV, CNN, and HBO, amongst many others.

“​I think the strokes are very important element in order to create a nice lettering piece, also the thickness and kerning are very important,” he told Lettering Daily, explaining his creative process. “Sometimes I have the same mistakes, I usually see different works of great artists to have a better idea of how to do it and that’s how I improve my work!”

Though most of his work these days is digital, there’s a sense of movement and tactility with every digital brushstroke, making his work seemingly pop out of the screen.

According to Milan, the hardest part of his job is actually finding a good quote or a word to transform. “I could spend hours looking for a good one,” he admits. “Since I have the phrase or word I start to make the sketches in different styles, after having chosen the best one I proceed to do it with a marker, brush or directly digital on a tablet. Finally, I place the lettering on a photo or image.”

With more than 130k followers on Instagram to date, people are clearly taking note.