How did Gina meet calligraphy?
My very first contact with calligraphy was during my studies in graphic design, but it wasn’t until I attended a Master’s degree in Advanced Typography that I began to be aware of the enormous importance of calligraphy in type design. Considering them as two independent disciplines was a complete mistake: to understand many aspects of typography we must search for an explanation in calligraphy and, likewise, since its advent, typography has also influenced calligraphy. They inevitably go hand in hand.
In my case, the artisan nature of calligraphy and hand-lettering weighed more than digital on-screen works. A few years after Laura Meseguer, Iñigo Jerez and Josema Uros introduced me to the complex world of type design, I found it interesting to go deep into the origins and expand my knowledge of calligraphy. Then, learning from Keith Adams, Oriol Miró and Ivan Castro, everything started.
After you met calligraphy, you left your existing profession and chose a completely new path. What was it like to create a new career path? What did it feel like? How did you overcome your worries?
Actually, it was not an unrelated path. I consider this breaking point more like a career evolution. As you have said, I was working at a small studio as a graphic designer when I realized I could only superficially develop my true concerns while what I wanted to do was to specialize in my real passion: letters. So I left my job and I devoted an entire year to study the fundamentals: the most relevant historical calligraphic styles from scratch. That was the first step I took to start my new career path. Afterwards, with that more solid foundation, not only had I been able to develop a more personal style, but I had also understood a lot of aspects of letter architecture and made me feel much more prepared to explore the universe of type design once again.
Of course, back in the days the decision of quitting my fix job was quite risky, but I do believe that it is when you take risks that you truly develop yourself. It can be in a natural way, without hurries, but always with the objective of finding your own way while feeling fulfilled in it.
How did you train yourself in this field?
This last decade, I have attended a bunch of great calligraphy courses and workshops in Barcelona and surroundings (mainly), Girona, Madrid and Paris. But apart from the workshops, which are especially helpful at the beginning of the learning process, there is a lot of persistent and demanding work at home. Once you have learned the basis of historical calligraphy, it is the turn of studying genuine manuscripts by yourself, copying them as faithfully as possible while trying to understand how all letter strokes were made. Also, it is important to apply all these skills creating your own personal artworks: which will be simpler in the beginning and they will become more complex and ambitious during the independent learning.
Now, at the end of all these journeys, you worked with Burberry, Dior, Givenchy, Celine, and such names. When you think about your process, how does that feel?
I can not deny I am completely satisfied with where I have arrived, but I also have the feeling that I need to keep working hard as I have been doing all these years to reach a real stability. Nothing lasts forever. As a freelancer, there are periods of abundance –when for example you are asked to work for clients with such names–, but you have to deal with other periods with less amount of paid jobs. Even so, it is precisely during these quiet periods when you should take advantage of being less busy and keep training yourself while working on personal projects.
Well, calligraphy, lettering, and typography want a lot of attention and patience. How do you manage this process? What should you pay attention to?
Indeed, patience, attention and meticulousness are necessary qualities to be able to “survive” in these disciplines. Fortunately, it is something we have acquired from the very beginning, when we were students and when it was possibly the hardest moment. Afterwards, they naturally form part of your character.
Both in calligraphy, lettering or typography we tend to observe more into white spaces –the counterforms– than what we call the blacks or the forms themselves. It is stunning how a bad spaced design can ruin a beautiful or apparently harmonic letterform!
Do you have a work discipline or routine?
It really depends on the project I am working on, but in general terms, as a lover of antiques, rare books and signage, I like to find references through my small found signs archive or from old lettering and type books rather than surfing the internet. The wealth of the work done in the past centuries is endless and there are great (and cheap second hand) books collecting all those treasures.
I usually do an intensive historical and present research through the appropriate books based on the commission briefing. Sometimes, with the basis of sorting out this exhaustive exploration I am able to start sketching early ideas on paper. But, actually, inspiration and first formal directions often come by mixing the research result with any daily source stored in my mind (or my phone). Singular urban architecture forms, the work of an artist I have recently discovered, an awesome handmade sign from a classic movie, etc. I consider myself a very curious person, so I’m always paying attention to everything that is around me and trying to capture those visually appealing inputs. It is a very important part of our work as creatives.
Then, the following process can notably vary whether I am commissioned for a calligraphy piece, a custom lettering logotype or a custom typeface. But the starting point is usually very common.
Well, calligraphy, lettering, and typography want a lot of attention and patience. How do you manage this process? What should you pay attention to?
Indeed, patience, attention and meticulousness are necessary qualities to be able to “survive” in these disciplines. Fortunately, it is something we have acquired from the very beginning, when we were students and when it was possibly the hardest moment. Afterwards, they naturally form part of your character.
Both in calligraphy, lettering or typography we tend to observe more into white spaces –the counterforms– than what we call the blacks or the forms themselves. It is stunning how a bad spaced design can ruin a beautiful or apparently harmonic letterform!
What do you think were the biggest influences that enabled you to achieve this style? Cities, people, or something else?
Without doubt, apart from the inevitable influence of our cultural and historical local background, living in Barcelona allowed me to learn from great masters of type design, lettering and calligraphy during the last fifteen years. I feel very lucky to have attended courses run by Keith and Amanda Adams, Oriol Miró, Ivan Castro, Enric Jardí, Laura Meseguer, Jesús Morentin (Bunkertype) and Albert Corbeto, among others. In their particular way, all the skills and methods they have shared with us within all these years have set up who I am nowadays. I owe them all I know.
And if Barcelona helped me to build my career fundamentals, Paris has meant –and still means– the perfection of them. I first spent two summers here due to TypeParis –first as a student, later on as part of the staff–, learning and consolidating type design skills and procedures by Jean François Porchez, Julien Priez, Mathieu Réguer and Xavier Dupré, among others. And, eventually, my devotion to old signs brought me back to the city to assist François Morel, a Parisian sign painter. Beside him I learned something completely different from what I was used to: new techniques, materials and supports I didn’t know before. Brand-new knowledge which enriched my background as a calligrapher and letterer.
How would you describe the expressive power of typography and calligraphy?
Somehow I would not describe it as power, but I have always loved to put the eye on the ideas, concepts and even personality hidden in all letterforms. It might look more obvious in calligraphy, where using the least amount of strokes, the calligrapher leaves visible the movements and tools employed to write. Probably, in this case, you feel this “expressive power” in a stronger way. But this doesn’t mean there is a lack of it in typography. This discipline also shows subtle imprints of its author even if its functional goal prevails –especially when talking about text typefaces.
You had different workshops and lectures. How does it feel to teaching your passion?
Indeed, I started teaching in 2016 and I have always enjoyed it so much. I personally put myself under a lot of pressure to properly organize all the stuff I want to teach being faithful to all sources. This implies a lot of work before the beginning of each workshop, but the result is always very rich and satisfying. You constantly learn new things and points of view; you acquire a lot from students’ feedback. After a long period when I haven’t taught as much as I used to, step by step I am back to teaching and I could not be happier.
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