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.