Ouss Mezher helps accelerates action for gender equality through her creative design
Creatives play an important role in elevating International Women's Day (IWD) through helping amplify awareness raising. Via their creative contributions, audiences worldwide are engaged through collective action to help forge gender equality.
Each year the IWD Lettering Challenge, in association with the global Typism community, calls for creative designs that support an annual IWD focus and showcase the impressive talent of creators.
Here, we shine a spotlight on one such creative, Ouss Mezher, and showcase her IWD 2025 #AccelerationAction design.
Ouss is part of #Typism100, a directory that helps lettering artists attract new clients through showcasing their skills to a wider audience.
Ouss is a versatile creative based in Montreal, Canada, blending her skills as an illustrator, pattern designer, and lettering artist.
Ouss Mezher is an illustrator, surface designer, and lettering artist. She spends her time sketching and painting, crafting whimsical and symmetrical designs that exude an elaborate nature and sense of movement. As an educator, Ouss strives to share her knowledge by creating tools and classes that help fellow pattern designers achieve their artistic goals.
A graphic designer and an award-winning children's book illustrator, Ouss breathes new life into the world of repeat pattern design. As an artist, Ouss spends her time sketching and painting, crafting a distinctive style characterized as whimsical, symmetrical, elaborate nature, all with a sense of movement.
As an educator, Ouss strives to share her knowledge with her students. Her goal is to guide them beyond the fundamentals of repeat pattern design, enabling them to explore their creativity and reach new heights in their artistic endeavours.
Since Ouss was a child, she was always interested in drawing and illustration. Her creative curiosity led her to eventually explore the world of Interior Design and subsequently Graphic Design.
Parallel to her career as a graphic designer, Ouss continued with her childhood passion, illustration. Ouss has illustrated several children’s book with publishers from around the world, from North America to the Middle East to Africa.
Ouss draws inspiration from both her design and illustration experience to create modern patterns that reflect her love for both nature and architecture. When Ouss is not working on a new project, she can often be seen doodling in her notebook or sketching on her iPad.
Emphasizing the word "action"
When Ouss started sketching, the first image she had was of a woman always at the forefront of any challenge, ready for action but also wanting to preserve and empower.
"I wanted the word "action" to be bold and large to reflect how every woman is defined by her actions yet remains calm in the face of any situation," explains Ouss.
Explaining her design process
When creating her designs, Ouss starts with a small scribble and expands it to see if the idea or sketch feels right. Then, Ouss takes a photo and uploads it to Procreate, where she adjusts the saturation and brightness. Ouss usually works with a specific colour palette (green for this piece) and continues refining it.
"Sometimes, I can end up changing the colours completely if the letters are hard to read," adds Ouss.
Accelerating our actions
Ouss explains that, with everything happening in the world, we need to accelerate our actions.
"Looking back at my younger self, fighting for a better environment and social justice, it’s disheartening to feel like we take one step forward and then ten steps back. But the women around me give me hope. The struggle is real, but it’s even more important now to speed up our actions and make a real difference," comments Ouss.
Uniting in solidarity on IWD
Ouss explains what International Women’s Day means to her.
"International Women’s Day isn’t just a celebration; it’s a powerful moment for women to unite in solidarity. Sadly, we’re still having the same conversations, and the gap between women in different societies and socio-economic classes feels overwhelming. But it’s also inspiring to see that we’re all connected and we need each other more than ever," adds Ouss.
Inspired by a passion for lettering
After pivoting her career from graphic design to pattern design, Ouss wanted to explore other sources of income, so one of the options was licensing greeting cards, and she realized that my love for lettering and illustration made this medium a perfect fit for her.
She advises artists to follow other lettering artists whose work they admire and who participate in lettering challenges. These challenges can help you step outside your comfort zone, push your creativity, and make you practice consistently. "While engaging with the community, you’ll not only find inspiration but also see noticeable evolution in your work," says Ouss. "Being part of an online lettering community is incredibly inspiring. I feel proud to be surrounded by crazy-talented people who openly share their creative processes and struggles. It encouraged me to push my own capacity but has also helped me discover great resources, tools, and classes to improve my lettering skills."
Why not share your creative talent with the world?
Post your creation on your social media feeds using the hashtags #IWD2025 #AccelerateAction #IWDtypism for a chance to be featured.
Together, let's #AccelerateAction for gender equality.