Today we’d like to introduce you to Riri Tamura.
Hi Riri, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up, I’ve always been interested in art and design. My grandfather is an oil painter and whenever I visited his studio in Japan, I came back home inspired. I knew I wanted to pursue art for my career at a young age. I took art classes for 7 years and finally made the decision to study Graphic Design in college. After college, I landed different jobs as an art director and designer at various agencies. During the pandemic, I indulged myself heavily in hand lettering as a way to express my creative freedom apart from my full-time job.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road in terms of where I am at today. While I was commuting to college, I attended classes until 10pm everyday all while managing 3 internships during my last two years. For my first job out of college, had to really push myself to show to my peers what I can bring to the table and worked 16 hours days on campaigns. From these struggles and experiences, I think it really shaped what kind of creative I want to be and who I want to be working with.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a hand lettering artist, illustrator and designer. By day, I am a Visual Designer, by night, I am a hand lettering artist. With my hand lettering style, I like to incorporate gradients and textures while using bold, pastel colors. I think what sets me apart from others is that if I want to do something, I’m going to do whatever it takes to do it. I’m most proud of my Adobe Live Stream I did last year using Adobe Fresco. I was able to show the behind the scenes of my lettering process and interact with people on a highly visible platform. This opportunity allowed me to gain the confidence of being able to potentially pursue my side hustle as a hand lettering artist full-time eventually.
How do you define success?
I define success as being happy in life. As long as you’re laughing and feel content with whatever you’re doing, I feel that in itself is success. I think success is also having the ability to choose the clients you want to work with, regardless of however much they are willing to pay. Right now, I don’t have the luxury to choose who I want to work with but eventually I would like to get to a point where I feel comfortable enough to say “no” to certain clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.riritamura.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riritamuradesign/
