‘It’s like checking in on yourself at the end of the day, processing feelings, setting intentions’
After a childhood spent drawing obsessively in rural Pennsylvania, Oakland’s Jessica Hische grew up to become a creator of fonts, love-themed postage stamps, film title typography — for “Moonrise Kingdom,” among others — and book covers. She never imagined she’d be writing — and, of course, lettering and illustrating — children’s books. But then she became a mother of three. Her latest book, “Tomorrow I’ll Be Kind” — the follow-up to her 2018 picture book, “Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave” — features a bunny and other small creatures practicing kindness.
Q You’re a lettering artist. How did you come to do children’s books?
A When my daughter was about nine months old, we were reading endless children’s books to her at bedtime, and I just wanted more books of different varieties and flavor. So I started thinking about what I would want to read to her. I was in therapy at the time for anxiety — I always hated messing up, and my daughter is the same. If she makes one mistake when she’s drawing, she throws it out. So I wanted to write about self-forgiveness. With the “tomorrow I’ll be” structure, it’s like checking in on yourself at the end of the day, processing feelings, setting intentions — and if you don’t achieve your goals, tomorrow you can try again.
Q How do the books differ?
A The art in the second book is much more complex. It’s grown along with my daughter! “Brave” was more for a very young child. The illustrations in the new book are super bright and engaging (and) there are multiple talking points on each page. I wanted to show universal values anyone could teach their kids. I feel like it could be an end-of-theday mantra. I made a joke when it came out that I wanted to send a copy to everyone in Congress!
Q Why a bunny as the main character?
A I’ve always really hated drawing people. And I was afraid I’d get pinned into a corner. If it was a boy main character, maybe girls wouldn’t pick it up, and vice versa. I wanted it to be very ambiguous. And when my daughter was little, we called her Baby Bun!
Q How do you feel about Comic Sans?
A It’s low-hanging fruit! Comic Sans is a very well-built font that gets used inappropriately by lots of people. Papyrus is more ragged on. There was a “Saturday Night Live” bit where Ryan Gosling was very upset that the movie “Avatar” was using Papyrus. Graphic arts people love it when normal people talk about fonts.
Q What are some of your favorite independent bookstores?
A Pegasus on College Avenue (in Oakland). We have a total ritual. We put our names on the wait list at La Note then go over to Pegasus. Same thing in Berkeley. We put our name on the list at Saul’s and go to Books Inc.