Dana Tanamachi {Type Hero}

Morning Type lovers.

Todays Type Hero is one that I only discovered a couple of days ago, and frankly I am a bit upset I was not clued in from the beginning.

Firstly, let me start with a question. You know how when you were a kid, you used to think of all these amazing but (now that the dawn of adulthood has come around), impossible jobs for when you grew up? For example, when I watched the hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time, I honestly wanted to have a career as a gyspy. Assuming that meant I would get to run around in pretty flowing skirts with a goat as a sidekick, befriending hunchbacks in bell towers and such, you know the usual kind of gypsy life.

Needless to say it was a dark day the moment I realised this wasn't a possible career option for me. Disappointment  I would liken to not receiving my letter from Hogwarts when I turned 12. (By the way dear reader, you are only lying to yourself if you say you didn't expect it as well.  F*cking muggle.)

Todays Type Hero, Dana Tanamachi, is one of those people that has a seemingly impossible job occupation. "Professional Chalk Letterer". Yes that is correct,  Brooklyn based Tanamachi has forged a career for herself as professional chalk artist.

Designer portrait. Taken by Spencer Heyfron for Wall Street Journal. Photo courtesy of www.danatanamachi.com

Tanamachi studied Communication Design at the University of North Texas. Finding a love of typography quite early in her studies, she committed herself to arduous classes of lettering and studying font, subsequently laying down the foundations of her practice today. Perhaps it would explain Tanamachi's fluid and natural approach to the the letters she draws, with an innate sense of weight, style and proportion evident in all her work. After graduating, she has worked as a designer for Spotco and  finally ended up at Louise Fili Ltd whilst freelancing her custom chalk lettering skills.

Taking commissions for events, weddings, interiors and print publications, Tanamachi has flourished in a niche craft and made it her completely own. A design practice that balances remarkable originality simultaneously with uncanny nostalgia.

Consider me smitten.

All photos  courtesy of www.danatanamachi.com