Creative Profiles

my rituals: maggie waller of type & title

February 7, 2014

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If I could go back to college, I’d change very little — except my majors. I doubled in journalism and psychology, but now I wish that second major was design or art. More and more I’m fascinated by typography, lettering and graphic design, and since college is a somewhat distant memory (yikes), I feed my curiosity with tons of design-minded blogs, like Maggie’s Waller’s Type & Title, which curates all things cool in typography and hand lettering. Maggie, a recent San Diego transplant by way of Iowa and Texas, also owns her own design studio, where she offers paper goods, temporary tattoos and custom projects. I love how her blog acts like a peek into the creative process with glimpses of inspiration and mid-stage projects.

Today Maggie tells us why she’s armed with a million notebooks, what she does for 30 minutes each day and coffee–always coffee.

Name: Maggie Waller
Age: 26
Hometown: Boonville, MO
Current city: San Diego, CA
Profession: Freelance graphic designer & letterer // type & titleCoffee & email
My two dogs have a better internal clock than I do, so most days, they’re my morning alarm! Once I’m up, I head straight for coffee. Every few days I make a fresh batch of almond milk (I use this recipe — it will change your life). I catch up on social media first, then tackle emails as soon as possible. I don’t usually check email more than once a day — with my phone, I can keep an eye on messages coming in, in case a client has an immediate need. Letting most nonessential things wait till the next day has given me a huge productivity boost.

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An hour away
After email, I’ll try to take 30 minutes to an hour to get away from the computer and phone. Depending on the day, this could mean packaging shop orders, practicing new lettering styles, gardening, doing laundry, reading a design magazine, taking the dogs for an extra-long walk… I’ve learned that the morning is not my most productive time of day and if I stay online, I’ll get caught in a black hole of internet articles or online window shopping and later regret that I didn’t use that time more efficiently.

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Constant list-making
I think of myself as more of a dreamer and less of a do-er… I have a lot of ideas but have to work a bit harder to make them happen. I keep about a million notebooks and lists going at once to keep all my ideas organized so they all get a fair shot at coming to fruition.

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Daily highs and lows
This year my husband is in a particularly time-consuming and demanding phase of his job (and I’m trying to build a new business), so we work hard to make sure we stay connected even if we both just want to curl up and watch TV at the end of the day. We take time right after he gets home from work to catch up—our favorite ritual is to tell the other our “high and low” points of the day. It’s a great way to stay engaged in each other’s lives when we both have a lot going on!

Thanks, Maggie! You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Have a good weekend!

6 thoughts on “my rituals: maggie waller of type & title

  1. Stacy | The Lacquerie

    Great interview! I must say that I am a little obsessed with Maggie’s dreamy notebook collection… Please tell me where can I find that beige leather and/or the pastel color-blocked! :)

    Reply
    1. maggie / type & title

      Thanks Stacy :) The leather one is a notebook cover, actually (Moleskine journals fit inside perfectly) and it’s by Bradley Mountain… I got it at Lone Flag up in Del Mar! The pastel one is from Anthropologie a few years ago (I tend to buy them and hoard them till I need a new one, naturally.)

      Reply

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