Nicole: I was wondering if you've met any left handed calligraphers? I'm left handed.

G: In my workshops, there's often left handed people, who have different methods. Some of them do the opposite, so instead of pulling on that downward stroke they will push. But there's a guy on Instagram who's actually from Australia who's an amazing brush letterer, called Matt, I'll give you his Instagram afterwards, but he has many tutorials and he uses a left handed brushstroke. He often uses like a smaller brush pens so he can come over the top so he doesn't have to slide over as much.

R: Any questions from the internet audience?

The questions have been shortened, and not all questions from the internet audience have been included in this transcript.

Ryan: How do you go about freehanding your large-scale murals?

G: Okay, I never freehand them, that's a myth.

The illusion of freehand is very appealing in every part of art, I think, but usually at the point where someone sees, especially on Instagram. There's been a whole series of background sketches; maybe if it's been like, you know, like for the exhibition I did for Laguna Beach, we shot a video of the painting, a lot. I drew that probably ten times in brush marker on paper, scanned it in, tweaked it in Photoshop, like replaced this R better than this R, then projected it and drew pencil outlines, then painted it. There's a stop motion animation on my phone, and that stop animation is what was saved. So it was an illusion.

Jessey: Any advice to someone about breaking into lettering and getting more lettering projects?

G: I definitely know that I find it difficult to look at the early work because especially brush styles, I remember doing a job for Canon; it was like a huge commission, it was like a really loose hand written style at that time. When I look at it now, compared to what I do now, it just didn't have the fluidity and confidence in the stroke. So it's definitely you can work on and get better. For me, when I was interested in typography in design school, it wasn't as cool those days. It wasn't as many design books, there weren't design blogs, there wasn't a million Instagram accounts.

The idea of me working completely only with only typography wasn't even a possibility, I just assumed I was going to be a designer and typography/lettering would be one part of that, so I actually started a blog, and that's where I channeled all my interest in lettering/typography. I also immersed myself in the resources that were available. And now there's even more. I used to listen to Type Radio, and I Love Typography had just kind of started, so there was a lot going on, but there's even more now. so I think, for someone starting out, just get yourself out there, there's so many tools, and so many workshops, it's so easy to get started.

Andrea: What projects get you excited on a good day?

G: For me, I get bored with a particular process. So, at the moment, I've done a year of murals, so I'm on the edge. I still love the scale of the mural, but what ways can i can still work on design, and maybe work with people painting or sign painters or vinyl, or other applications to work on the scale. So, I think it's whatever's the last thing I do, once something, how can I push it further… whether it's, I feel like the responsibility of pushing legibility forever, so much the commercial work I do. It has to be readable. You know, it's not art… it isn't art.

But being able to blur the lines between art and illustration and typography is something I will continue to kind of push it. But on a good day, I will feel like I've created something completely for me, it's personally fulfilling. I know that I've done something I haven't done before, learned a new skill or a maybe practiced a new technique. You know, I've started using balsa wood as an alternative to markers and over time that became something that was part of my progress and now I teach in workshops. So, always looking for new ways and experimental techniques and on a bad day… doing the same stuff. Or this is like, "what's the point?"

Robin: How do you have creative control over your projects and navigate clients?

G: I think that one of the important things about having side projects is so you can have examples in your portfolio of work that you love and that is a style that is unique to you, so your clients can see that and say, "we really like this we want this." Whereas if you only are doing really follow certain briefs and creating work that might be trendy at the time, then that's the only example of work that people will have to see to refer to.

So I think that there's certain instances of where there are jobs where I'm like, "okay, this isn't really necessarily a style that I love, but, I'm going to do this commercial job because then I know I'll have the money or the time to work on something new or creative." It's always a push and pull to weigh like, having more control and then accepting that sometimes you might be just doing something that you're involved in.