The type master

These days, our ABC’s are undergoing a renaissance, and that’s thanks to people like Jessica Hische, who makes art out of letterforms. You’ll see her letters looping their way through work for Tiffany & Co., Target, and American Express, and you can also catch her curvaceous characters in the titles for Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.

“Type designers have been a relatively unappreciated group of folks in history up until now,” says Hische, who attributes the change to films like Helvetica (yes, a movie about the ubiquitous typeface) and the rise of Web design, which allows more designers to experiment with typefaces.

Hische’s A’s to Z’s caught our eye because she has brought back the luscious, looping script of the past in a completely contemporary and tech-forward way. Instead of just caring about how a type looks, she also thinks about how it works, making sure that the lettering functions across mediums and devices, not just on paper.

Look out for her Buttercream typeface line and Penguin Books’ set of classics emblazoned with her ornate capital letters. Both speak to the power of type. jessicahische.is