Why She’s Interesting: Quine has left you letters all over the city. From the serif points of her “Dream Big” mural in Gordon Square to the curling yellow “Come Together” sprawled across the side of South Euclid’s House of Swing, the Mentor lettering artist has scrawled her bright script on murals, storefronts, galleries and more. Since launching her creative consulting business in 2017, Quine’s racked up more than 37,000 Instagram followers and expanded her reach to clients such as Louis Vuitton and Target.
Liner Notes: Quine’s first forays into lettering were the song lyrics she’d trace into her high school notebooks. Years after studying visual communication design at the University of Dayton, she posted her first public typography project: lyrics from Rilo Kiley’s “A Better Son/Daughter” drawn over the text of an art psychology book. “I think [my followers] were really interested because it wasn’t just one style of lettering.”
In Bloom: Beyond the lettering itself, Quine loves to pack every open space with stars, florals, foxes, chickens and more. Though she doesn’t have one favorite thing to draw, right now she’s taking cues from William Morris, a late-1800s textile designer whose richly textured botanical prints were recently on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art. “I love the way he layers florals and the movement in his textile pieces.”
Color Story: One of Quine’s biggest national breaks came in 2017, when Target commissioned her own coloring book after finding her work on Instagram. It was a trickier project than you might expect, with lots of trial-and-error, especially for an artist devoted to tiny detail. “You have to make sure you’re closing all the gaps. If you’re coloring a circle and it doesn’t connect all the way, that really upsets people.”
French Connection: In November 2018, the City of Cleveland announced that Rouen, France, had chosen Quine to letter a mural in the northern town to celebrate 10 years of city sisterhood. Among the colorful, wavy shapes painted by two French artists on the side of a local gym, Quine lettered “All Colors Are Beautiful” in curving circus-reminiscent type. “It was about two cultures coming together, but even if you didn’t know it was celebrating Cleveland and Rouen being sister cities, it was a message anyone could relate to.”
Three and Out:
What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?
A seven-day road trip in Iceland. We went around the rim of the country. We went hiking over all this weird looking terrain that looks like something straight out of Avatar.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
I was watching a Beyonce interview a long time ago, and she said she wants to “make every opportunity she has phenomenal.”
What’s your most treasured item?
My puppies, Jackson and Piper. They’re both mutts.
