CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This week’s Made in Chicago features XO Art and Design, a company that makes something old — the art of calligraphy — new again.
“No surface is safe,” said Amanda Tiberi. “I can write on anything.”
Tiberi is a stationer, calligrapher and engraver. After getting her degree in industrial design, she worked as a graphic designer but wanted to try her hand at calligraphy.
“I got my supplies off of Amazon,” she said. “I thought I was going to be awesome, and [there was] a little bit of a reality check because when I first started, I was sad. If anybody starts anything, the first time they do it, it’s not perfect.”
The south suburbanite taught herself and started XO Art and Design in 2016, which she turned into full-time work five years later. Tiberi paints with watercolors and acrylics and does a lot of wedding work — not just invitations, but writing out seating charts or welcome signs on mirrors.
“Moms of brides or mothers kind of want the calligraphy aspect of wedding stuff because, maybe, they had it back in the day when they got married,” Tiberi said.
Tiberi spoke with WBBM Newsradio at the Fannie May Flagship store on Michigan Avenue for a holiday event where she wrote on ornaments and gift tags.
“I work with companies and brands, and I’ll do live lettering,” Tiberi said. “When people meet me at those kinds of places and get my information, that’s what they’re interested in hiring me for, for their wedding or their event.”
That could mean engraving gifts or wedding favors.
“People really enjoy having something done by hand, and how it’s not perfect all the time, so you really have to find those clients that value that,” Tiberi said.
XO Art and Design, Made in Chicago.
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