Meet Adriana Garcidueñas | Designer, Illustrator, Lettering Artist & Typeface Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adriana Garcidueñas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adriana, how do you think about risk?

First of all, I must tell you that I’m a very random person, I like very opposite things, for example: my playlist can go from Royal Blood, passing through Beethoven, and ending with BTS; so we can say I like the opposite very much. I love taking risks, (a.k.a, experimentation), it gives me so much rush of energy and want to do a lot and create so much, but at the same time its one of the most scariest things to me, to try something new and screwing it up, and having a sad and stressful time. Recently discovered that I hate the learning curve; the initial stages of learning and not knowing da hell you’re doing, i hate it! but it’s in those horrible times when I have created some of the work I’m most proud of, lemme elaborate…

When you get out of your comfort zone and the horror begins, its when new connections are made up in your brain, at least that what happens with mine haha, I try to figure it out how to solve something with the things I have, like, what happens when I take a calligraphy tool in other angle or rhythm, or what happen when you use an unexpected tool to make an unexpected thing, or trying a totally new thing like learning how to paint with spray paint or learn how to write in korean. It’s in those times when new and weird, but amazing ideas are born I think.

So, taking risks it’s a very constant part of my life, or at least in my work, sadly I’m no Indiana Jones in real life (sorry), but what I am is a curious girl, and I’m always thinking of new weird and eclectic combinations that I know I’ll regret but at the end I know i’m gonna be happy and proud that at least I tried (failure is also very enriching way of learning).

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

Basically, I draw letters, and time to time i like (loooovee) to combine them with illustrations. I see my personal work as a diary, I like to draw whatever I like at the time, music being my most current topic, also like to draw the tv shows im watching, the place im visiting, the current festivity, etc. Time to time I like to go back and see with what I was obsessed at the time, and also like to see how my skill have developed, what style I abandoned, what styles has always been with me, and like to remember how did I get where I am right now.

I was born in the beautiful city of Morelia, but grew up in a very small town in the state of Michoacán, México; so my journey with letters was and has been really turbulent. It all started when I paid too much attention to the letters around me, maybe because I’m dyslexic, and had a really hard time in elementary school, that I got obsessed with letters, idk, but I really liked the different ways the letters could have, so when internet finally arrived to the town one of the first thing I remember doing, was printing out the “Quick brown fox jumped…” (because I didn’t know how to install a font) and tried to trace them freehand, and the rest is history… a kinda lonely history, ’cause I didn’t know anyone who did the same things, it stayed the same until 2015 when I was finally able to attend my first lettering workshop and met people who were doing the same things.

But it was until the awful 2020, in the middle of the isolation when ironically found my people, my pack, my letter support group; the Letrástica Comunidad, was the typenerdy club I didn’t know I needed. It’s in this community where I have learned the most and made friends that maybe, who knows, some of them are the designers of that “Quick brown fox…” I printed out so many years ago<3

If you had to take one thing from this interview, it would be, find your pack, your nerdy group of friends who likes the same random or weird stuff like you, and learn from them as much as you can  And support each other 

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Uuuffff… We obviously had to start eating Gaspacho in the historic center of Morelia while walking through the streets, take the classic picture beside the cathedral, oh! but avoiding the clowns that performs in the plaza right next to the cathedral, I kinda hate them, but stopping to hear the street musicians that plays all sorts of music from classical, traditional to more contemporary songs. At night we would go to this kind of underground temple of delights, i know this sounds kinda weird, but it is actually a temple (Templo de la Inmaculada concepción), and it sells the best enchiladas placeras in the world.

The next day we’d go to the magic towns like Pátzcuaro, Janitzio (a town-island inside a lake), Tzintzuntzan, (all of this towns are the inspiration for the Disney’s Pixar movie Coco <3 ) and obviously they are gorgeous and have typical delicious dishes. And ending, oobviously, eating carnitas tacos in Quiroga.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wanna thank fist of all, Karla Pasten who introduced me to you guys, it was a little bit of surprise to see the email asking me for an interview, I thought it was spam hahaha so, Karla, gratzie <3 I didn’t know I was on your radar :v Wanna thank my family who supports me in their own particular way. Also want to thank the letritas community a.k.a Letrástica comunidad, it was a true oasis in the middle of the pandemic. Thanks to my all time friends (loviu), and internet friends who support my stuff even when we never meet. And like Snoop Dogg said… Last, but not least, I wanna thank me, for believing in me, I wanna thank me for doing all this hard work, for never quit.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adriana.garciduenas/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriana.garciduenasvillalobos