How to see like a designer: The hidden power of typography and logos | Jessica Hische (Lettering Artist, Author)
Jessica Hish, a design legend and lettering artist, discusses the process of refreshing logos and brands, when it's time for an update, and how design elements impact perception. She also shares productivity tips and insights on using AI in creative work.
Deep Dive Analysis
13 Topic Outline
Jessica Hische's Unique Skill Set in Custom Typography
When and Why to Consider a Logo and Brand Refresh
Jessica's Process for a Logo and Brand Refresh
Challenges and Learnings from Lenny's Brand Refresh
How Non-Designers Can Learn to 'See Like a Designer'
Understanding Elements That Impact Logo Perception
The Final Design and Versatility of Lenny's New Logo
The True Role and Impact of Brand in Company Success
Jessica's Flexible Pricing and Collaborative Design Approach
Balancing Diverse Creative Projects to Avoid Burnout
Integrating AI into the Creative Design Process
Jessica's Children's Books and Physical Store Ventures
Navigating Design Decisions and Trusting Experts
4 Key Concepts
Optical Tricks in Typography
Designers often intentionally break mathematical rules of geometry in typography to correct for how the human eye perceives weight and spacing. For example, strokes might be slightly thinner where they join to prevent an optically 'dark' spot, making the letter appear perfectly balanced even if it's not mathematically so.
Reverse Justification of Intuition
This mental exercise involves identifying an intuitive feeling about a design (e.g., 'this feels calm') and then asking 'why?' to trace it back to specific design elements or past experiences. This helps non-designers understand the underlying principles and commonalities that evoke certain emotions or associations.
Brand as 'Hot Ham Water'
This analogy describes a brand where various elements (logo, typography, illustration) are disparate and don't work together cohesively, much like a pot of ingredients that haven't blended into a unified dish. The goal of a brand refresh is to turn this into a 'soup' where everything feels like it was created at the same time and from the same universe.
Brand as Invisible
For many products, the brand's role should be to get out of the way, allowing the product itself to be the star. The delight comes from the product's seamless functionality, rather than the brand's overt presence or design choices, especially if the company's ethos is about doing something simply and well.
6 Questions Answered
It's a good time when you're about to invest physically in making branded items (like swag for new hires or conference materials), or if you're about to do a significant rollout of a new website or app that updates and expands your presence.
A refresh can fix issues like poor scalability (looks bad when too big or too small), lack of legibility, difficulty designing with certain elements (e.g., awkward white space), or the absence of a good avatar version for specific contexts.
Look at various fonts and ask yourself what feeling each gives you, then analyze commonalities among fonts that evoke similar feelings. Also, observe how expert typographers subtly adjust letterforms to correct for optical illusions, making things appear perfect even if not mathematically so.
If you use widely available or free fonts, it's very easy for competitors to copy your branding. Custom typography makes it harder for others to imitate your look, helping to protect your brand's unique identity as you grow.
By bouncing between different types of projects as steam is lost on one, rather than taking traditional breaks. This allows for a mental refresh by engaging different parts of the brain and hands, maintaining enthusiasm for work.
AI, particularly tools like Claude and ChatGPT, can be very effective for early brainstorming, generating lists of words, concepts, or adjacent ideas. It can also assist in the iterative process, such as generating sketches or instances of lettering in different styles.
19 Actionable Insights
1. Embrace Decisive “Good Enough”
Cultivate decisiveness by recognizing that multiple good solutions often exist and perfection is rarely attainable. Aim for “good enough” (e.g., 99.8% perfect) to avoid endless noodling, allowing you to move on and accomplish more.
2. Diversify Work to Prevent Burnout
To maintain enthusiasm and prevent burnout, diversify your work by having multiple projects or tasks that engage different parts of your brain. When losing steam on one, switch to another that feels fresh instead of taking a full break.
3. Practice Hope as Discipline
Actively choose to cultivate positivity and hope, recognizing it as a discipline rather than an inherent trait. Create structure and practice around being hopeful and positive, understanding that you have the power to reframe situations.
4. Identify Core Brand Issues
Before a logo refresh, take time to understand the big-picture reasons why your current brand isn’t working, rather than focusing on minor details. Blur your vision to assess the overall feeling and cohesiveness, then progressively narrow down to specifics.
5. Define Clear Refresh Goals
Before starting a logo refresh, clearly define your goals, whether it’s a subtle fix or a major pivot to attract a new audience. This initial scoping dictates the entire process and ensures the outcome aligns with your strategic objectives.
6. Align Brand with Company Ethos
Determine your company’s core ethos—whether it’s about seamless functionality or a delightful user experience—and align your brand’s prominence accordingly. For some, the brand should be subtle, letting the product shine, while for others, it’s central to conveying value.
7. Develop Design Intuition
Practice looking at fonts, noting the feelings they evoke, and then analyzing commonalities among those that elicit similar feelings. Then, reverse-justify your feelings by asking why you feel that way, connecting it to past experiences.
8. Analyze Competitor Branding
Research your competitors’ visual branding to decide whether to align with their aesthetic (to signal industry fit) or diverge significantly (to differentiate your company). This strategic choice helps position your brand effectively in the market.
9. Time for Brand Refresh
Consider refreshing your logo and brand when you’re expanding your product’s look and feel, about to invest in physical swag, or if competitors are easily copying your existing, non-custom branding. This helps ensure your brand scales effectively and maintains uniqueness.
10. Address Legibility Issues
If your logo has glaring legibility issues or can be misread, it’s time for a refresh. Ensure your logo is incredibly legible at a super fast glance, especially for new or less recognizable brands.
11. Understand Design Elements’ Impact
Recognize that elements like letter width, weight, spacing, and edge softness significantly impact the feeling a logo conveys. For example, slightly rounded edges can make a typeface feel more vintage or softer.
12. Observe Optical Corrections in Type
Examine large-scale typography (e.g., in Figma) to notice subtle optical corrections, where mathematically imperfect adjustments are made to achieve visual perfection. This reveals how expert designers manage perceived weight and balance in letterforms.
13. Combine Type Styles for Versatility
When choosing typography, consider combining different styles (e.g., handwritten with block letters) to create a broader visual vocabulary. This provides more flexibility for headlines, subheads, and other brand uses, making the system easier to expand.
14. Design for Ease of Use
Aim to design a logo and brand assets that are intuitive and easy to use, minimizing the need for extensive brand guidelines. This empowers non-designers within your company to apply the brand effectively without requiring extreme design skills.
15. Imbue Work with Story
Create lasting work and build a strong brand by imbuing it with story and meaning. People connect deeply with objects and brands that have a rich narrative, making them less likely to be discarded.
16. Trust Hired Experts
When hiring experts, approach them with appreciation for their vision and expertise, and avoid micromanaging. This allows them to deliver their best work, as you’re paying for their specialized knowledge and bandwidth.
17. Leverage AI for Brainstorming
Use AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT for early brainstorming, such as generating lists of words, concepts, or directions for creative projects. This can help quickly gather ideas and cherry-pick what feels right.
18. Strategically Engage Brand Experts
Consider engaging brand experts as consultants or for final polish, especially if you have an internal team capable of initial work, to optimize budget and foster collaboration. Jessica’s projects typically range from $25K-$35K, with flexibility for consulting.
19. Analyze Font Feelings
Look at various fonts available in the world and ask yourself what feeling each one evokes, writing down your immediate reactions without overanalyzing. This helps you understand the emotional impact of typography.
5 Key Quotes
Hope is a Discipline.
Jessica Hische (quoting Mariame Kaba)
Most people are better at understanding the feelings and sensations that typography and logos give us than they give themselves credit for.
Jessica Hische
Sometimes you have to walk down a path before you're able to understand what the right thing to do was all along.
Jessica Hische
My goal always when designing a logo is to design a logo that's so easy to use that you don't have to be an extremely skilled designer to design well with it.
Jessica Hische
The more homogenous your life and career and job is, the faster you're going to burn out. So just making sure that you have enough variety in all the things that you do.
Jessica Hische
2 Protocols
Logo and Brand Refresh Process
Jessica Hische- Figure out the specific goals of the refresh (e.g., subtle fixes, shifting audience vibe, solving utilitarian issues).
- Determine the scope of exploration for the first round (how experimental or broad to go).
- Conduct initial explorations, either narrowing down from broad options or focusing on technical fixes.
- Iterate through rounds, addressing different aspects like overall look, weight, letter height, and details.
- Test files in situ early on to solve utilitarian issues and ensure they work in real-world applications.
- Be open to revisiting earlier concepts if later explorations don't feel right, using them as validation or confirmation.
Exercise to 'See Like a Designer'
Jessica Hische- Go to a font library (e.g., MyFonts) or open your font folder.
- Search for a basic category of fonts (e.g., serif, sans serif, script).
- Page through and screenshot fonts that evoke a feeling in you.
- Create a folder of these screenshots and categorize them by the feeling they evoke (e.g., feminine, masculine, aggressive, calm).
- Ask yourself 'why' you felt that way about each font, considering elements like weight, width, spacing, edges, and historical associations (e.g., reminds me of wedding invitations).
- Optionally, use a design tool like Figma to type out letters, make them large, and draw lines or circles to observe subtle optical corrections in seemingly geometric typefaces.