Lauren Hom is a California-born designer, illustrator & hand lettering artist with a 250k strong following on Instagram. She is known for her use of bright colour palettes & playful letterings and has worked for clients such as Starbucks, YouTube, TIME Magazine, Google and AT&T. She has also been recognised by Communications Arts, the Art Directors Club, the One Club, the Type Directors Club and the Webby Awards. But how did it all start?As with all STIMY episodes, we start from the very beginning: with Lauren’s childhood & how she ended up studying at the School of Visual Arts for, of all courses, advertising! While there, she met influential figures who had a deep influence on her decision to become a freelance artist. Turns out, being the junior director of a big ad agency in New York wasn’t the dream job she’d thought it would be!  Lauren also peels back the layers on some of her most popular passion projects, beginning with Daily Dishonesty - which landed her a book deal upon graduation! That proved pivotal, as it gave her a financial cushion to launch a freelance career. Three things stood out with Lauren’s life story:her talent in lettering;her ability to use passion projects to change the trajectory of her freelance career, repeatedly; andher willingness to be open about how she executes her projects, markets them and what she earns! And finally, why she is now going on a sabbatical and entering culinary school.If you’ve ever been curious about the business side of an artist’s career, then this is the episode for you.Highlights4:58 Work hard, snack hard5:38 Doing advertising11:40 Becoming a Junior Art Director in a big New York city ad firm13:36 Daily Dishonesty16:52 Seeing Daily Dishonesty go viral18:51 Getting an illustration agent20:14 Knowing when to say no to a client22:59 Planning to go freelance24:17 Earning $100,000 by Year 3 of freelancing25:12 Growing an audience on Instagram28:27 “Will Letter for Lunch” side project31:28 Getting clients like Microsoft & LinkedIn in less than 1 year34:12 Flour Crown & Peen Cuisine39:30 Traveling 1.5 years around the world40:47 Being inspired more by every day life44:35 Taking Back Sunday46:36 Taking a creative sabbatical to go to culinary school54:48 Would Lauren ever do street art??Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/66  ? Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 ? Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy