Jessica Hische is a typographer and illustrator living in Brooklyn. I’m certain you’ve seen her sophisticated, yet playful work all over the place. She’s totally obsessed with type as you can see from her rad tat and also a member of The Pencil Factory (alongside the previously posted Jennifer Daniel). We’re excited to have as Jessica as a guest at the cool kids table today, check it out!
Q: Did you go to Public School? If so, did you ever get a swirly in the bathroom?
A: Ha! I did got to public school, but only for two years. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarden to 10th grade and public for 11th and 12th (transferred because my Catholic school teachers wouldn’t let me take art classes, they wanted me to double up on science and math instead). No swirlies thank goodness.
Q: Do you turn down a lot of work?
A: I do, probably 3-5 projects per week (especially since the Cooper Union program started). I wish I could do all of them but I definitely have a handle on how much work I should take on at any given point so that I can live a fairly balanced life and not be rushing around pulling my hair out all the time trying to please everyone and do too much.
Q: Which Wes Anderson film would you want to be in? and Why?
A: Probably The Darjeeling Limited just so I could travel around India.
Q: Do you ever want to do anything besides graphic design?
A: If I could get paid to eat fancy food or drink fancy cocktails I would do that in a heartbeat. All in all though, graphic design (/ illustration) has brought about a ton of good in my life. I never thought I’d be able to travel around the world because of it!
Q: What is about letterforms that’s so appealing? I just love this quote from Erik Spiekermann, “Other people look at bottles of wine or girls’ bottoms. I just get kicks out of looking at type.” To me it’s part dorky, part science, part interesting, and part Bob Dylan Coolness.
A: Erik Spiekermann is the coolest. I will never say anything as good as that about type. What draws me to them is probably just how accessible they are to everyone. You don’t have to be a designer or even an artsy person to appreciate beautiful letters.
Q: Who would win in a fight between R2D2 vs Short Circuit?
A: Short Circuit, duh. He’s wayyyy sassier!
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Thanks so much Jessica!
