Design Firm Plays with Adult Coloring Trend in Alphabet Form

To welcome the New Year, the Lesli Ink team took the Cast of Characters concept that caused quite a stir just three years ago, and gave it a totally new spin. At first, the team members wracked their brains trying to come up with something completely new. But then they realized that taking a highly personalized approach to redesigning each letter of the alphabet in a new way each year would become a team-centric tradition and something people could anticipate. This year’s theme for the designs of each letter was inspired by the adult coloring fascination that has swept the world. Friends of Lesli Ink received an unsuspecting silver envelope with a 4X6 print inside on Mohawk Fine Papers, each with a distinct letter intricately designed so that the recipient can put on their own creative cap to color. “There’s nothing more personal than the initial to your name,” Lesli says.

Then, the message on the back invites recipients to grab whatever art supplies that they can and to add their very own personal touch. After all, the designers shouldn’t be the only ones who get to have all of the fun, Lesli notes. “This year represents something I really care about—creativity in your everyday life. I personally wish everyone could be creative in their life every day,” she says. As you scroll through #LesliInk on Instagram, you see some of the ways people are doing just that. It all goes back to that notion of creating wonder and joy with design. “Wonder being the idea of creativity and [something] a little unexpected. Joy [is] unlocking creativity…tapping into that innate ability to be creative that we all need,” Lesli says.

Although the idea is to ignite creativity in recipients from any number of disciplines, the spark for it all starts with the Lesli Ink team. The team of seven as well as former employees and creative collaborators all get in on the action. In what’s become almost ceremonial fashion, the team meets for lunch and excitedly picks letters from a hat. Then, in the months to come, everyone gets busy adding their unique flair to their letters but in a way that it all feels cohesive as a system in the end. “There’s definitely favorites,” admits Lesli, citing “Q,” “R,” and “X.” On the flip side, there are dreaded letters, like “S” and “I.”

But no matter what, the team aims to make each letter on its own a gift as the recipient will experience their own initial individually. “If some letters on their own aren’t exciting, it doesn’t work. That’s our motivation for each letter being super special,” Lesli says.

View all letters and print out your own initial to join in on the fun.