Award-winning designer Gemma Flowers has a thriving career
August 02, 2023
Gemma Flowers is a fabulously creative designer based in the UK. Gemma's hand lettering has featured in international design magazines, music videos, and on painted murals in popular restaurants.
Gemma's talents have led her to designing print literature for the BBC and winning design awards.
Working on music videos, drink re-brands, and film festivals
Also known professionally as The Lucky Type, Gemma's artwork has featured in the Typography Special issue of international publication ldN Magazine. Gemma's work has intersected with the music world when she doodled all over hip hop artist Scroobius Pip for his music video, You Will See Me, that went on to win Best Independent Music Video at the Independent Music Awards.
While studying for her Graphic and Media design degree, Gemma won the YCN Student Award 2015 for a re-brand of a J2O bottle label which was also featured in YCN's 2015-16 annual.
Since winning the award, Gemma has worked on the branding and literature for the BBC Arabic Film Festival in London, making designs for their festival guide, posters, invitations and certificates. Gemma has also seen her t-shirt designs chosen to go on sale in store and online at clothes store, FIT.
On the weekends, you'll find Gemma running around National Trust sites photographing botanicals and keeping busy in as many artistic ways as possible.
Supporting the IWD Women Creatives Mission
Gemma is one of the many talented women who responded to the call-out for entries to the IWD x Typism annual Lettering Challenge. Gemma showed her support for the IWD Women Creatives Mission by creating unique artwork that celebrated the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme.
Paying homage to childhood nostalgia
Gemma shares the inspiration and creative process behind her beautiful IWD typography design, and how the creative industry is closing the gender gap for female designers.
When Gemma was young, she visited a fabric shop with her mum. Gemma was fascinated by the buttons of all shapes and colours, especially those shaped like tiny frogs and mushrooms, displayed in little drawers.
"That interest has grown to be a collection of enamel pins now I’m an adult, and I wanted to create a project to pay homage to that tiny slice of childhood nostalgia," explains Gemma.
Explaining the creative process
When it comes to her creative process, Gemma usually has an idea in her head of how she wants the composition to look before she stars.
"Blackletter is my go-to lettering style at the moment because I love how the angles can help the letters fit together snugly," adds Gemma.
For her IWD design, Gemma did a very rough sketch, including possible color ways and any notes to remember for the final artwork. Then Gemma refined the lettering repeatedly in design program Procreate until she was happy with the finished composition.
"I added a touch of femininity with the flourishes to soften the artwork, and I find that the little stars are perfect for filling in annoying gaps," says Gemma.
Emphasizing the importance of IWD
For Gemma, International Women’s Day is so important because it can educate and highlight how much further we still need to go to make life and opportunities fair and equal for all women.
When asked what the IWD theme 'Embrace Equity' means to her, Gemma says: "We don’t all start in life with the same advantages or disadvantages, and I believe embracing equity is necessary to level the playing field to achieve true equality."
Closing the gender gap for designers
Although Gemma has found the lettering world to have leading creatives of all genders, she has personally experienced the general graphic design industry as more male-dominated, especially in UX/UI and web design.
"That being said, even if we still have a little way to go, I think we’re closing the gap, and designers like Jessica Hische, Martina Flor and Lauren Hom are excellent role models for other women on the path to achieving the same success," says Gemma.