Gemma O’Brien, Artist
Gemma O’Brien is an Australian artist specializing in lettering, illustration and typography. After completing a Bachelor of Design at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, Gemma worked as an art director at Animal Logic, Fuel VFX, and Toby & Pete before deciding to fly solo as a commercial illustrator in 2012.
Her typographic work takes on a variety of forms, from calligraphic brushwork, illustration and digital type, to large-scale hand-painted murals. She splits her time between advertising commissions, gallery shows, speaking engagements, and hosting hand-lettering workshops around the world.
Her clients include Playboy Magazine, Nike, Volcom Stone, Kirin, Heineken, QANTAS, and Diet Coke. A number of her projects have received the Award of Typographic Excellence from the New York Type Directors Club, and in 2015 she was recognised as an ADC Young Gun.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
A ballerina!
What do you love?
The sun. It’s amazing, gives me Vitamin D, keeps my house plants alive and makes my iPhone photos look pretty good.
What is your process like?
The ideas phase is chaotic and manic and at times traumatic. And the drawing phase is therapeutic.
What is something you had to learn the hard way?
When you’re a creative freelancer you eventually have to pay that tax bill!
What is one thing most people would be surprised to learn about you?
I’m literally the messiest girl on the planet. Also, I can’t do a cartwheel.
What are you grateful for?
Health, friends, family, getting paid to do something that I genuinely enjoy, and Google maps.
How do you define success?
Success is when your mum isn’t the only person who buys your art.
How would you describe your art to someone who cannot see?
The calligraphic brush work is like a familiar voice effortlessly stringing together a sentence, the commercial work is like a pop song you’re listening to on the radio and my large scale murals are like going to a gig of your favourite band.
What’s the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to you?
Once I flew in a helicopter with the heir to the Walmart fortune from Salt Lake City to Utah to get some beer.
How do you think we can make the world a better place?
Oh no, a serious question, now I feel bad for saying I was grateful for Google maps! I think you can make the world a better place by starting small scale: be kind and open-minded.
More Gemma O’Brien:
instagram.com/mrseaves101
www.gemmaobrien.com
