Selina Pan

Selina is another illustrator who exhibited at the New Blood exhibition in London. Her work consists of images that are created purely from type. I think the way in which she creates her work is very delicate, as from a distance the piece above appears to be created from line. In August, I contacted Selina regarding her typographic work.

LEANNE: I recently saw your work exhibited at the New Blood exhibition in London and was really inspired by your work. I really like the way you use type and sentences to create imagery. I am about to start a project called "Illustrated Typography" and so I was hoping you could tell me the inspiration behind you work and the processes you use to create it.

SELINA PAN: Thank you for your email. I am glad that you enjoyed viewing my work at teh exhibition.

My style emerged during my final year of my Graphics degree at Staffordshire University after seeing work by Sam Winston, who uses type as a method to convey stories.My background in fine art and my passion for typography triggered the urge to experiment with letters. I started cutting letters out by hand and composed designs out of them, or I'd experiment on Adobe Illustrator.

I hope that helps. You could send me some of you work for some feedback if you want.

LEANNE: I sent Selina a link to my website, www.leannehughes.com, and sent her some of my typographic work.

SELINA PAN: I've just had a look at your typeface and website. Some good work there!

Perhaps some suggestions: The typeface is unusual, i like the feel of it. Maybe you could look at the contrast as some letters appear stronger than others? Do you know what I mean? What about the colour scheme. Perhaps the use of rustic browns and earthy tones of green would enhance the type?

The stuff on your website seens quite experimental which is good. I have a feeling you will do really well because you seem original. Do you know what direction you want to go in?

I find that the serif blog or even deviantart can be good platforms for criticism (if you aren't already on it!).

I hope that helps!

LEANNE: Thank you for your suggestions, I'll apply them to my new work. I've joined Deviant Art but not put anything up so I'll give that a try thanks.

I'm not too sure what direction I want to go in yet, but I'm starting to get really interested in typography and printing. I still feel a bit lost about how I fit into illustration yet, but hopefully my work will soon come together!