DESIGNER, LETTERER, EDUCATOR
HOM SWEET HOM, DETROIT MI
Lauren Hom is a designer, letterer and educator. A self-proclaimed “artist with a business brain”, she picked up hand lettering as a hobby while studying advertising at the School of Visual Arts. Over the next few years (and thanks to the power of the internet), she leveraged a few clever passion projects into a thriving freelance lettering-focused business. Known for her bright color palettes, playful letterforms, and quirky copywriting, Lauren has created work for clients like Vans, Google and Adobe. Called a “lettering legend,” she loves sharing what she’s learned with others through the Q&A’s she does on Instagram and her catalog of online courses on lettering, marketing, mural painting and more. When she’s not working on client projects or teaching, you can find her running #HOMwork (a free creative challenge she’s been sending out since 2017 with tens of thousands subscribers), learning how to make her favorite foods from scratch, or dreaming up her next passion project. Lauren’s motto is, and will always be, “Work hard, snack often.” After almost a decade in the design industry, she realizes that working hard all the time isn’t sustainable, but she got it tattooed on her forearms when she was 23 so it will always be her motto and she’s fine with it. She just reminds herself and others to take more breaks now. In 2023, Lauren plans to attend culinary school to expand her creative skillset and explore the intersection of graphic arts and culinary arts.
Has the pandemic changed your workplace and your workflow? Do you expect to return to pre-pandemic ways of working or will any changes become the ‘new normal’?
Since the pandemic began, our small studio has been working remotely, with the exception of a handful of socially-distanced photoshoots we needed to do. I miss the organic sharing of ideas that happens face to face, but I think working remotely has its benefits too (no commute time, more flexibility in scheduling, etc). Most of my team was already working remotely before this year, so in the future I could see us working 75% remotely and 25% in-person. We’re lucky to be flexible, and our plan is to adapt as the situation changes.
What do you expect 2021 to hold for graphic designers and the design business? Have the challenges of 2020 changed the way you think about your job and career or the role of design?
I can only speak for myself, but I think 2021 will be a year of experimentation. It’ll be the year we pull out those “maybe someday” and “wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas that have been collecting dust and actually do something with them. 2020 was a reminder that life is short and unpredictable, and it forced many of us to take stock of our work and ask ourselves if we want to make any adjustments. The challenges of 2020 reminded me that complacency is not an option, both personally and professionally.
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