For some reason, the last part of January felt like it dragged on for me, anyone else?! Here we are though, we made it to February and you know here at Half Mile Handmade a new month means we get to tell you all about a new maker. For February, we are featuring the talented Chelsie Tamms from Lettering Works - a graphic designer out of Chicago, Illinois.

Chelsie shared that she had a spinal fusion surgery in the eighth grade which was a big push for focusing more on her art, as it was an activity that she was able to do post-op. At Bradley University she studied Spanish. graphic design, and marketing and started Lettering Works straight out of college, even winning a student entrepreneurship competition to help get that up and off the ground. After three years, she decided to relocate to Chicago to scale her business and have access to more opportunities.

She explains, “the Lettering Works name came from my desire to focus purely on lettering projects as well as educate customers and clients on how lettering ‘works’ in a variety of applications.” She officially went full-time with Lettering Works in 2016 and never looked back. Her favorite part of the creative process is bringing together a wide variety of ideas/sketches/elements that culminate into one amazing final design. “I always enjoy the process of adding colors to designs, which I save for the end. Bringing so many elements and concepts together doesn’t always make for a clearly linear process, which is why I find so much beauty in the end when it feels like the design clicks and I know it’s ready to share.”

Many of her most popular selling designs are Chicago-related, but she also has some custom designs at Field Museum, Chicago History Museum, and Wrigleyville Sports that folks love too - HOW COOL, that’s like celebrity status in the handmade world! Please please please show Chelsie some love and support by looking up Lettering Works on Facebook or Instagram or you can shop her designs by clicking the link below or stopping into the shop!

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