To tackle this question, it is important that we delve into who Jessica Hische is and her many works.
Jessica Hische is an artist who specialises in lettering, type design, as well as an author. However, more than that, she is also a speaker, web developer, and a mother of three children. To put it simply, she is a hardworking woman with many jobs, yet still enjoys what she does.
She grew up in the rural parts of Pennsylvania and was mainly doing her creative work in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Now, she is based in downtown Oakland, California. (Jessica Hische, 2020)
Moreover, she really values finding happiness and fulfilment in the work she does, so she does her best to help other achieve that same goal through mentoring, workshops and writing.
According to her FAQs, Jessica Hische studied Graphic Design in the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia. By the end of it, she had achieved a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts). (jessicahische.is, n.d.)
By her reasoning, she had attended there because it was one of the few good schools she could afford to study in and that they had accepted her portfolio of mostly student work. All in all, her experience there was rather pleasant as the classes were usually small, and the professors there encouraged an environment where artists could experiment freely; this was something that Jessica really appreciated as an experience.
After graduating, she went on to take a job at Philadelphia’s Headcase Design in 2006, which was a graphic design studio according to an article by Emily Gosling (Hische, 2016). Not too long after that, she was able to find work in a design studio known as Louise Fili and afterwards began extensive freelance work. Some of the clients she had worked include Wes Anderson, Penguin Books, MailChimp, New York Times, and Wired.
Suffice to say, her early life was packed with work and studies, constantly having to find new work as a designer in America before she would eventually settle into her own brand. This shows her hard work and dedication towards art and design, but also her values as a designer with her reasonings behind liking certain aspects of her early education.
Around 2009, she embarked on a side project known as Daily Drop Cap, where she designed a drop cap (this is what you call the oversized initial letter of a written work) for every workday until she completes 12 alphabets. (Blogspot.com, 2022)
This project was meant to challenge her to always try out different styles and experimenting with them, never staying in one for too long. Each drop cap would take from 20 minutes to 2 hours.
However, what started as a simple project to help her stay motivated eventually gained a lot of traction in the online space, with countless users praising her for this kind of work. This project elevated her online status as a designer and in a way, what launched her career.
“In Progress” was the first book book she had published in 2015 when Chronicle approached her about writing one. To give a brief summary of what it is about, it is essentially a book that goes deep into Jessica’s design process for lettering, as if she’s walking the reader through it herself.
According to an interview between TypeThursday and Jessica Hische, novice lettering artists or anyone who comes from a non-artistic background in general would be easily intimidated by how they would even get to her level of expertise. This book was designed exactly for those types of people; to aid them in the journey through taking “baby steps” as she calls it. (Jockin, 2016)
This project of hers shows how she takes into consideration the more amateur and novice designers, which would make her a very thoughtful mentor to a lot of people. Her design process would also inspire the others as it would be a helpful guideline for those struggling to get started with their design ideas.
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” is an American comedy-drama film released in 2023. She collaborated with Lionsgate to design the typography of the title, which was then used on several beautiful graphics.
Activations like an International Women’s Day bus tour, and brand partnerships like the underwear company Cuup were also involved with Lionsgate in advertising the film using the title design. (Hische, n.d.)
This work shows off her handwritten style very well; expressive and playful, a fitting typeface style for the title of this kind of movie. It implies she has done her research on it, especially what brands and activations the movie would partner itself with.