Member Feature: Christy Batta
Today we are so excited to introduce one of our co-founders, Christy Batta! Christy is a graphic designer, which is the base of SSLetter's origin story. We love her creative, encouraging spirit, and her ability to keep all things SSLetters organized + looking beautifully branded. Get to know her, her stripe addiction and enchanting hand lettering in this month's member feature!
How did you discover hand lettering?
I think I first started exploring hand lettering when I was in design school. I used it a few times for projects when I wanted to express something really raw and energetic that a digital typeface couldn't do. Even though I kind of messed with it some, I didn't get too deep into it because I was honestly intimidated and felt like I wasn't ready to put in the work to get really good at it.
How long have you been hand lettering?
I would say I've been really serious about hand lettering for about 3 years. Basically since we started this club!
Describe your hand lettering style.
I think my style is definitely messy, imperfect, lively, and perhaps approachable? That's what my intention is at least!
What are your favorite tools to hand letter with and ways to display hand lettering?
I looooooove my Pental Arts Pocket Brush pen and that is my ultimate weapon of choice these days to get the real inky and varied strokes. I also love the Pilot Bravo marker because it's bold and but not too crisp: it's got an organic feel. So far I mostly display lettering in my Instagram feed but have been getting more into lasercut signs as well as exploring making prints of my favorite pieces.
How did you find SSLetters?
I found it in my head, lol! As an idea that Amina and I had at the same time and made a reality!
What brings you back to SSLetters?
Definitely the shared experience of lettering with other cool people. I love getting to see people play with their lettering, try something new that may be scary, and get excited about what they can make with such simple tools!
What was your favorite SSLetters meeting that you attended and why?
I loved the Curse Words themed meeting we did. It was really silly and fun to see what curse words people love and there was a lot of giggling for sure.
What inspires your lettering?
I am most inspired by trying to find a balance between beauty and messiness in my letters. That's what I'm always struggling to do in my life anyway to it's a really nice metaphor for me to dig into.
Do you have any hand lettering projects that you're working on? Tell us about it! Or any projects you have done in the past to share?
Last year I did a 100 days of lettering project which was a great chance for me to grow and develop my brush lettering style to a place where I really like it. I made the theme 100 Days of Health Stuffs so the things I lettered focused around sharing my thoughts and feelings about dealing with chronic illness. It was a lot of getting real vulnerable with my sharing and a lot of really wonderful supportive responses from friends and family! One of these days I'll make a tumblr page to share all the images from that project.
What do you do outside of hand lettering? Any special interests?
Graphic design! Thrift shopping! Surrounding myself with stripes!
What is your favorite letter, number or character to letter?
Cursive lowercase r's: I love making them real loopy and dramatic.
What is your most challenging letter, number or character to letter?
OMG cursive lowercase f. I have fun drawing it but somehow it always looks like a b.
Anything else we're missing that you want to share??
Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who have participated in and supported this club over the years!!
