Luxury Jewelry Design & TASCHEN Publication

The first decision is always research. Where is this artist right now, and what symbols belong to them specifically?

For the AstroWorld chain, the text came first. The project was amusement park territory — you needed letterforms that could carry that world visually before anything else was decided. AstroWorld was one of the most referenced typefaces in 2018, but it earned that. From there, the second decision was which aspects of the carnival to render, because you don't put everything in. You identify the two or three elements that do the most work and commit to those.

Across the full five years at Eliantte, the thing most people won't notice is how much of the work is hand-drawn. The Rich The Kid designs make it most visible, the line quality in those pieces is recognizably human. Not crude, but not constructed from a font either. That distinction matters in a market where most design work starts and ends in software. The hand-drawn quality creates a singularity. You can't replicate it exactly, which is the point for work that's meant to be one of a kind.

I grew up to around 5 sketches per commission before narrowing to two directions for presentation. One or two get presented to the artist. The work is fast-moving and personal. You're designing for people who will wear the piece on their body in front of millions, in photos that will circulate for years. Generic work doesn't survive that scrutiny.

Eliantte knew what they were working with when they brought me in — not just a designer, but someone with genuine culture cache. Someone who grew up in this industry, who was embedded in hip hop before chain commissions were part of the conversation.