If you say that you're a cheap designer, you're a cheap designer. It's really hard to recover from that.

I always love design but the more I designed for clients, the less I liked the process of designing for them. I do lettering and illustration for money, which clients don't mess with too much and web design for fun.

The awesome thing about lettering - which is different from many forms of art - is that you can actually see your mistakes. There are sophomore mistakes that people do at the beginning that you spot everywhere. For example, a lot of people make 'W's by turning 'M's upside down.

If you are on Craigslist to get a sofa, and you see one for free. You think there’s something tragically wrong with it - maybe there are bedbugs. But if you see a sofa on there for $2,500, you think ‘oh man, that sofa must be amazing’. It’s the same thing with art - you set your own value.

Every new thing you make will be (should be) the nicest thing you’ve made so far, because you’re learning and getting better with each and every new project.

The reason why many clients don't value design is because haven't had a designer prove to them the value of it. You need to prove it to clients who've hired a bunch of shitty designers and their business has not been that successful. When they hire a good designer, they see the difference.

I was a generalist in college. You take a lot of courses to feel out what you're interested in. I really felt web design was too limited for me to interested in it - [instead] I was really into typography.