Meet Mabel Garcia, the creator behind one of the Accelerate Action lettering designs
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, Mabel García, and showcase her IWD 2025 Acceleration Action design.
Mabel is part of #Typism100, a directory that helps lettering artists attract new clients through showcasing their skills to a wider audience.
Mabel, known as La Merluza Creativa, is a graphic designer and lettering artist from Valencia (Spain). With the soul of an eternal learner, she is always discovering and exploring new styles and disciplines, which helps her grow as a professional and motivates her to face each new project with greater determination.
Specializing in the world of letters
A graphic designer and art director specializing in the world of letters, Mabel's skills include calligraphy, lettering, digital and printed design, motion graphics, and 3D modeling and animation.
"With the soul of an eternal learner, I am always discovering and exploring new styles and disciplines that make me grow as a professional to face each new project with better determination," explains Mabel.
Helping clients stand out from competition
Mabel helps professionals and companies stand out from their most direct competition, creating design pieces that generate an impact on their clients and help increase their profits.
Developing different projects with passion
Mabel has higher education qualifications in journalism, graphic design, advertising, and motion graphics. This, together with her experience as a freelancer working for brands in sectors such as music, food and sports, among others, gives her a broad capacity to develop very different projects with efficiency and, above all, a lot of love and passion.
Initially by a passion for graffiti
"I have always been interested in the world of letters; in fact, I studied journalism, and although it is another way of writing, I have always liked being able to communicate. Perhaps the initial inspiration comes from my brother, since when we were little, I was so focused on the world of graffiti that it indirectly made me pay attention to this wide world and want to drink from it in some way since, at school, I already decorated all my notebooks with lettering pieces," says Marcia.
Staying inspired and motivated when facing creative blocks
"When I have a creative block, the first thing I do is disconnect from the internet. I go outside, walk, read, go see an exhibition, or just sit quietly and drink a coffee. I think it's important to give your mind some breaks and seek creativity away from the screen. It is also very useful for me to look through the lettering books that I have on my shelf or the compilations of pieces by great artists, which are always inspiring," explains Marcia.
Learning essential techniques and skills
"It is always important to start from the base, and the base of lettering is calligraphy. It is very important to have a good foundation in calligraphy. You don't have to master all the styles by any means, but at least know them. Knowing the rules, the terminology, and what is right and what is wrong is key to later making good lettering pieces. If you don't have a good base, you can't correct errors," suggests Marcia.
Enhancing her lettering skills
"As a tool to make a lettering piece, I think you should always start with the analog part with a pencil and paper, and once you have a clear sketch, transfer it to the digital tool of your choice. In my case, the Procreate app helped me move forward in a more comfortable and faster way since it makes the work process much easier when it comes to seeing the final results. I think that regardless of whether the piece has to be vectorized or not, digital illustration applications facilitate the creative process," says Marcia.
Transitioning from lettering as a hobby to a sustainable business
"Well, when I started in the world of lettering, I already had my focus set on graphic design, so I just had to gradually introduce lettering into my work process and into my professional assignments until they finally started to reach me and get commissions due to interest in my lettering pieces. I think it is a hard road because there is a lot of competition, and in recent years, it has grown a lot, but if there is effort, it is very rewarding," says Marcia.
Being part of an online lettering community
"I think it is important to be connected to other professionals and artists in one way or another since there are always things that can be improved, and you always have to continue learning. The community of professionals that you have around you is important as inspiration. At the end of the day, everyone has to find their own voice and being in a good professional community can greatly enrich your work. Personally, I love belonging to the Typism community not only because of the support that comes with being able to see your work published (in my case, in books 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10) but also because it is a source of inspiration and it is supportive to have so many people who are passionate about the same thing as you," says Marcia.
Future goals and projects
More recently, Marcia has been training in motion graphics and 3D design in order to to tackle animation and 3D projects, which is a path that she would like to grow in.
"I know that starting out in a new discipline is difficult, but I have a great learning path to follow, and I want to travel it with determination and a lot of work," she says.
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 Accelerate Action for gender equality.