Students of Design

Lisa Quine – Lettering Song Lyrics, Airline Barf Bags, and Pricing Murals – Ep22

Episode Summary

Lisa is a Cleveland-based creative consultant specializing in lettering, murals, illustration, and graphic design. She's created over 125 murals in 9 US states AND 1 in France. She's made art for clients like Amazon, Meta, PepsiCo, Mercedes-Benz, Harley-Davidson, Aveda, StubHub, and many more. Lisa's obsessed with Lana Del Rey and tiki bars and has a creative crush on Gemma O'Brien. Once, she said, "If you throw a stone, you get a mural." I don't think she meant to say THAT, but you get the point—she loves making murals. Lol. Also, Lisa has been called the LeBron James of lettering, and in 2024, she was voted Best Artist in Cleveland. Tune in for a talk about lettering some of her favorite song lyrics, taking inspiration from William Morris and Jason Carne's Lettering Library and her approach to pricing murals. Lisa's easy to find on Instagram @lisa_quine, lisaquine.com, and other places like LinkedIn, Behance, and Dribbble.

Episode Notes

Questions for this interview.

What do you think is the most important thing you learned as a student?
What do you remember about the Panic! At The Disco CD booklet, and why was it special?
Lana Del Rey inspires you a lot. Why is it important to you to have a muse who isn't a visual artist?
What comes to mind when I mention airline barf bags and puke puns?
Who made more of an impact on you, Paula Scher, Gemma O'Brien, or William Morris?
Can you share some thoughts about your Rilo Kiley hand-lettered book?
Do you remember which book you chose as the canvas?
Was that project your Instagram breakout moment? Is that when your follower count started to take off?
Which project led to more social media followers? The Rilo Kiley lyrics you hand-lettered or your Dream Big mural?
You hand-lettered on leaves for Inktober. How much experimentation went into finding the right leaves and choosing the right tools to draw with?
How often did you destroy one by stabbing through it or need to start over for a different reason?
How did your mural for GBX Group change the career path you were on?
Did you charge them 10K for that mural?
You completed 30 murals in a single year before. How much money did you make from those murals that year?
About increasing your prices. Did those increases align with milestones or reaching goals throughout your career? Or did they happen more organically?
Can you share those rates with us?
How much would you charge for the same mural today?
How do you typically communicate the visual differences between the three options you offer your clients?
Have any of your murals been covered up or painted over?
Is the Cleveland Guardians you painted the largest surface area you've covered in a single mural?
Is it true that before you were married, you used a dating game to fuel your hand-lettering hobby, and you said yes to some of those dates just because it gave you a reason to hand-letter song lyrics inspired by how those dates went?
Can you explain what Jason Carne's Lettering Library is?
How have you specifically used those photos to inspire your work?
You've become more patient after having children. Can you think of ways that patience makes you a better artist today compared to the time before you had children?
Since going independent, where have you seen the most growth? Has it been personal growth, technical growth as a lettering artist and muralist, or growth as a business owner?
You've completed over 125 murals and plenty of design and lettering projects, and last year, you were voted Best Artist in Cleveland. How does all of that make you feel?