Subverting humanity’s over-reliance on technology is WNW Member Ivan Cash’s calling card. It’s these explorations into enabling actual human connection that led to Ivan founding IRL Labs. His latest offering? Glasses that block out the screens taking over your life.
Read MoreOvershare Podcast: Jessica Hische + Jennifer Daniel
Overshare Podcast: Jessica Hische + Jennifer Daniel
Overshare is a Working Not Working event series and podcast that features honest conversations with our favorite creatives about the tough stuff we don't talk about in public often enough. When the idea for Overshare was first born, Jennifer Daniel and Jessica Hische were two of the first artists that came to mind. In this fourth episode, we head to San Francisco and attempt to go deeper than the 34,000 tweets of these two professional oversharers. It was no easy task, but they were more than happy to oblige. Talking about their respective therapists early on in the conversation, Jessica explains, "My therapist doesn't say anything in our sessions. It's just me dumping onto her and then I leave." Jennifer quips, "[Mine] tweeted me once. That was weird. I had to fire her." Inherently the conversation did circle back to a discussion about how social media has impacted their careers, with Jennifer adding, "There is no question it has impacted my career. I would love to meet someone who said it didn't impact their career...I think in 140 characters now. It has absolutely informed my identity."
Aside from being incredibly talented designers and illustrators with equally intimidating resumes, Jessica and Jennifer have both had kids in the past couple years. As someone who doesn't have children and is not a woman, WNW co-founder Justin Gignac aimed to learn how motherhood can affect you as a creative as well as how it affects your career. After an educational detour into pregnancy, epidurals, placenta, and breastfeeding, Jessica and Jennifer opened up about the struggle to get back into the game after maternity leave. As Jessica describes, "People constantly ask me, 'Oh so wait you still have the studio?' People are surprised that I still have my studio in the city now that I'm a parent. Not even that I still work, it's that they're surprised that I don't work from home now that I have my daughter. Why would I give up my studio, why would anything in my life really change? Why would my business change that significantly?" "I was not prepared for that perception," Jennifer adds. "I did not really appreciate the understanding that the default is the mother takes care of the kid before their career. It is biological, I cared about those kids more than my career. But I love my job, I fucking love working...Professionally, women get screwed when they have children. Universally. If you are worried about your career after you have kids, you have a reason to be worried."
Beyond motherhood, both women open up about being a creative in San Francisco, the dangers of long-term goals, and if they ever worry that they've peaked creatively or professionally. Looking ahead, Justin asks what success means to Jennifer and Jessica. For Jennifer, "Success is about it being difficult. Success isn't about it being easy. I love a good struggle. Success is insatiable. I don't think about it and that helps me." For Jessica, "Success for me is making things that I find meaningful but that also other people find meaningful. In a more personal way, feeling still excited and motivated by whatever it is that I'm working on."
For those of you who couldn't join us, we have good news: you can listen to the entire conversation below on our podcast, brought to you by our friends at AND CO. Subscribe to Overshare on iTunes, Soundcloud, or with any other podcasting app via our RSS feed.
Jessica Hische
Jessica Hische
Jennifer Daniel
Jennifer Daniel
A heartfelt thanks to AND CO for sponsoring this episode of Overshare. Let AND CO, co-founded by WNW Member Leif Abraham, help you run your freelance business by managing your invoicing, time tracking, expenses and projects with the combination of a smart app and your personal Chief Operator.
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MEET #34 JESSICA HISCHE
MEET #34 JESSICA HISCHE
Designer • San Francisco, CA
WNW Member #34 Jessica Hische has a portfolio that is nothing short of staggering. Her lettering and type skills can be witnessed in the titles for Moonrise Kingdom, the album artwork for the Beck Song Reader, and on the covers of new books and leather-bound reissues of the classics. And now, Jessica's work is traveling all over the country in the form of her own stamp. The San Francisco-based letterer, illustrator, and type designer spoke to WNW about working with the USPS, and which projects she's most proud of. Jessica is also very generous with her tips to fellow creatives, available on her portfolio site.
1. You have a stamp... that's amazing! Can you share a little background on the process behind creating a stamp?
It's super cool! Projects like that (not that there are many projects like that) are my favorite because they give my parents a pride meltdown. I worked with Antonio Alacá for this stamp (the previous two I worked on happened while I was working for Louise Fili so this is my first solo stamp). Antonio is an outstanding art director and has created a number of great stamps for the USPS so I was really excited when he called me up to work on one with him. His concept was to write the word "forever" in a heart shape, so the sketches I created explored different ways to do this. We decided on a version where the type and ornament were the same mono-weight line, which I really love because it takes you a second to read the letterforms through the ornament. He presented my final vector files to the approval board and now it's out in the world!
2. Is working with the USPS a much different experience? Do you get a free book of your own stamps?
The thing that makes working for the USPS or any government agency different is that it takes quite a bit of time to get approval on final art. It takes 1.5 to 3 years for the stamps to be released, which is quite a while to wait in anticipation! I didn't get a free book of stamps, but that was probably an oversight, ha.
3. Of all your projects, which one are you most proud of?
I'm most proud of the projects in which both I and the client are really happy with the end result. Sometimes that project is a big crazy project like the titles for Moonrise Kingdom, and sometimes it's a little editorial piece.
4. How long have you been freelancing? How did you get started as a letterer/illustrator?
I've been freelancing full time since 2009 (part-time from 2006-2009). I got involved in the illustration world toward the end of college—I was illustrating a lot for projects and interning at Headcase Design, a small studio that specialized in both illustration and book design. After school, many of my friends in Philadelphia were illustrators and seeing how their work-lives and personal-lives intertwined made me really want to be a freelance illustrator. They worked a lot, but they were in charge of their own hours. I started working with Frank Sturges, my illustration rep, when I was 22 and sent out tons of promos and took any job that would come my way. I started getting hired to do editorial illustration projects, and as my portfolio grew, so did the amount of job requests coming in. I got a job working for Louise Fili at this time, and worked for her full time for 2.5 years while freelancing at night. It's while I worked for her that I really learned a lot about letterforms (as well as in courses and workshops I took later). I started to incorporate lettering into my illustration work when clients would allow it, and over time clients started specifically requesting letterform based art. Overtime, my portfolio evolved from an illustration portfolio to a lettering portfolio, and now I pretty much exclusively focus on lettering work.
5. Is there a time or place that you feel most creative/have the best ideas?
I have the best ideas when I'm walking, showering, doing anything in which I'm doing another brainless activity and my mind can wander. I do tend to have the best ideas / clearest head in the morning after breakfast and coffee, so I save most of my brainstorming sessions for that time! I probably feel most creative though in my studio.
6. What's your ideal Working:Not Working ratio?
It definitely varies. Some weeks all I want to do is work and the idea of relaxing doesn't appeal at all, and some weeks I feel like I'm dragging my feet with work so I take time to myself to relax and reflect. The flexibility to live your life in a way that feels natural (as long as you're making your client deadlines), is the biggest plus of being a freelancer.
7. What scene from a movie makes you laugh just thinking about it?
I was having a frustrating day yesterday and the scene from Wet Hot American Summer, when Paul Rudd's character is throwing a tantrum while cleaning up his mess in the cafeteria popped into my head and made me giggle.
8. If you were stranded on a desert island, with your computer, what 3 websites would you take with you?
Facebook, Twitter, New York Times
9. What do you do when Not Working?
I am a really extroverted person, so most of my not-working time involves spending time with friends (mostly going out to eat).
10. Do you have a hidden talent?
Both Russ (my husband) and I are pretty good at karaoke. I know the lyrics to SO MANY songs from the '90s and early aughts.
11. Any tips or advice for fellow freelancers?
While the freedom to dictate your own schedule is amazing, make sure you impose some sort of structure to your life so that you don't feel like everything can suddenly go off the rails. I'm always playing with how to better organize my life, and post about it a lot on my site.
12. What's your favorite thing on the internet this week?
I've been having a low internet use week because I'm in the weeds with work stuff, but my favorite thing of the last month was the "send your enemies glitter" site, which got so popular the creator had to shut it down.
More of Jessica's Work
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NOT WORKING: TILDA
NOT WORKING: TILDA
WNW Member #34 Jessica Hische just released what is an unsurprisingly lovely new typeface called Tilda. From the Tilda microsite: "Jessica Hische’s typeface for Moonrise Kingdom set the tone for a sweet movie about youthful innocence. Inspired by director Wes Anderson’s quaint aesthetic and the titles from La Femme Infidéle (1969), Tilda is formally dressed, without hiding its raw, intentional naïveté. Unusual for a script typeface, it comes in two size-specific styles to preserve its delicate qualities for uses big and small, on page or screen." See the font in action with these images from the Tilda microsite.