a peek inside letterer kate pullen’s colourful home studio

Hi Kate! Tell us a bit about yourself. Hiya! I call myself an illustrator and letterer, and work mainly from my home office in the south east suburbs of Melbourne. I’m super grateful that I love what I do; one of my favourite activities is popping on a podcast and getting lost in an illustration on my tablet for a few hours. Outside of drawing I’m a bit obsessed with my dog Vinnie, I love reading, musicals, and Aussie TV dramas.How did you become a letterer and illustrator? I’ve always loved being creative, but it officially began with a short course in Creative Graphic Design with RMIT. I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do as a career, so I found this short course I could do for a few hours a week at night after work. Turns out I loved it, and so I decided to pursue design more seriously. Next came a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) at Monash University, a three-year degree that really allowed me to nerd-out to all things type, colour, and illustration. Then it’s been a very slow and steady burn of building my freelance practice over the last 10 years.

What’s a regular day like work-wise for you? It can really differ, day-to-day, which is both one of the best and most frustrating things about the job. Often, I’ll start with admin and emails, there might be a client meeting or two (over Zoom, you all know how it is these days), and then hopefully the rest of the day can be spent drawing. Some days, if I’m painting a mural, I’ll be on site and usually logging some pretty decent hours because those things always take longer than you expect!How would you describe your style? I’m still working this out, but bright, colourful, and playful are words that I think fit the bill. It’s often usually quite flat, by which I mean there’s not a lot of texture, and sometimes it might have a slight retro feel. Style is something that is constantly being tweaked and evolving (sometimes without me even noticing it) and so I’m often excited to see where I might head next.

Humour seems to be a big part of your work (aka we think you’re funny). How do these ideas form? Well, this is the biggest compliment, because most of the time I just feel like a big goober.  Thank you! I think so much of my work comes from me just trying to work out life; I’m a big over thinker, and sometimes get preoccupied with random trails of thought, and work is a great vehicle to explore these. There is also an incredible joy and satisfaction that comes with making people laugh.What tools and mediums do you use when you create your art? Having a tablet has really changed the game for me, and now I almost exclusively draw digitally. Everyone is different but for me, it’s given me a lot of freedom and confidence and I really do love it. Then there’s Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and I’m currently trying to teach myself After Effects (pray for me). The flip side of all this is painting a mural and it can be a wonderful relief to jump out from behind a screen and use my hands on an analogue project. Balance is always key! You also do a lot of mural work. What kind of planning goes into this? Planning is so boring but so, so essential. I have learned this the hard way! Knowing where you’re going to be painting as well as access, wall texture and size, are key details you need to be across before getting started. I know there are some artists who love creating the design when they’re there, up on the wall, and I am in absolute awe of them! For me, I will design the piece digitally and need to have that finalised before cracking open a paint tin.

There are a few ways to get the design from a tablet and on to wall – using a projector, a squiggle grid, pounce patterns, or simple freehanding and some of the techniques I draw on. Which one I choose will depend on a few factors, so it’s always good to have a few options up your sleeve!We loved the Locker Room Talks exhibition you ran earlier this year. How did you find running that? Thank you! Locker Room Talk was a project run by myself and fellow designer/illustrator Louise Brough, and we were so happy to partner with frankie for the show! Gosh it was an undertaking. I think Lou and I are both dreamers and we really got carried away (in the best way possible). Looking back, I kind of can’t believe it was all us – applying for grants, budgeting, finding sponsors, writing the artist’s brief, curating the show, organising panel talks and workshops, building a website and social media presence, marketing the whole thing, designing and building the installation, and installing and packing down the show. We did that! The whole thing was full of learning curves. It was incredibly tiring and stressful at times, as well as wonderfully inspiring and invigorating. Thank you to everyone involved, it wouldn’t have happened without you!How was it using the MSI All-in-One PC with MSI Cloud Center? I use a variety of tools in my practice, so to be able to connect them using the MSI All-in-One PC is a huge help. I’m also often working remotely, and so having the ability to access any number of files through the MSI Cloud Center means I don’t have to lug around an external hard drive – win!

Any tips for budding letterers out there? Practice, bb! It’s so cliched, but it’s true. Nothing happens without consistent practice, no matter how quickly we want to improve. I’ve also learnt that not everything has to end up on social media. That might sound obvious to some, but I’m continuing to learn that I needn’t feel pressured by the fast-paced nature of Instagram. Easier said than done, but I think we’re all happier when the race we decide to focus on is our own.

This inspiring chat was presented by MSI and the MSI All-in-One PC with MSI Cloud Center. MSI Cloud Center allows fast, secure and wireless backup and download between PC and mobile which makes it super east to share your work wherever you may be. Take a peek at all the other features on the MSI website.