Letters Pray: in his words

That’s the question on every designer’s mind: how do I get the kind of work I do really will? If only we had a simple answer (that’s a blog post for another day). What we can tell you is that professional lettering artist and illustrator Letters Prayalso known as Andy, seems to have cracked the code for himself.

Andy’s love for glyphs started in 2015. After getting an iPad Pro, he was hooked and fully committed to his art. His career is thriving, but Andy’s secret is that he doesn’t exclusively freelance. He works full-time at a creative agency, which allows his personal lettering practice to thrive on the side. In turn, his clients come to him because they already like his style, which means he can work on projects he really connects with, such as creating the coverage for our community calendar. It’s like hitting the creative jackpot.

We caught up with Andy to learn how he balances career and passion, what inspires him, and his tips for budding letterers.

Who is Letters Pray? How did you start?

I’m Andy. I’m from London but now live in Bristol.

At uni I was very involved in making notes and making my notebooks look engaging and cool. This habit spilled over into my work life, and I found myself missing things in meetings because I was busy perfecting flourishes or practicing calligraphy. But I really got into lettering and illustration while working in a very boring job.

I started by doodling on bananas and sharing silly things on my lunch break Instagram. I was...