Episode 7

Nick Misani — Celebrating the details

"Being overconfident can do more hard than good— (especially) if you think that everything is going to be easy for you and you deserve everything right off the bat... people get into a lot of trouble and their growth gets stifled a little bit if they're not open to just toiling away in the dark for quite some time...”

In this episode, I met up with Penguin Books, Mucca Design, and Fili Ltd. alum Nick Misani. Nick has been honing his typographic skills by designing decorative book covers and digging into the history books to learn more from historical references—this has led him to the successful side project called Fauxsacis.

Our conversation went a bit long, but it was the first time meeting Nick. Not only did I want to hear more about the process of beginning a project like Fauxsaicas, but also I what he learn from working with Louise Fili. Even though Nick was getting over a cold, he shared some wisdom on why the limitations of his fake mosaics are rooted in tradition, why he decided to start this as an Instagram project, and what he has in store for the future. Look out USA, he's bringing workshops to a city near you :)

Thanks again Nick for a great interview! Sorry my procrastination delayed the release of your episode and say hi to Cooper. (his dog)

Fauxsaics is a series of travel-inspired, typographic mosaic illustrations—which has since been featured on a variety of design sites and blogs including the ADC/The One Club blog. DesignTAXI, Abduzeedo, and Designboom and now on WIP :)

Links / Mentions

Tools & Technology

Mosaic Terminology

  • Opus musivum: Vermiculatum extends throughout the entire background.
  • Opus classicum: When vermiculatum is combined with tessellatum or regulatum.
  • Opus circumactum: Tesserae are laid in overlapping semicircles or fan shapes.

Where else to find Nick:


Visit the Works in Process website for more on this episode: http://wip.show/07


About the Works in Process Podcast:
A podcast series by George Garrastegui, Jr. — designer, educator and creative catalyst. Works In Process is a collection of discussions that exploring and demystify the creative process. I interview creative individuals to highlight and gain more insight into the way they work and the projects and/or products they produce.


Help Support the Process.

I'd like if you can share your creative process, notes and/or pic using #works_inprocess on Instagram. And, if you like this or some of the other episodes please leave us a rating, a review and subscribe to WiP.

Official ways to subscribe to Works in Process:
Apple Podcast > http://wip.show/apple_podcast
Spotify > http://wip.show/spotify
Google Play Music > http://wip.show/googleplay
Stitcher > http://wip.show/stitcher
TuneIn  > http://wip.show/tunein
Youtube > http://wip.show/youtube



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Works In Process w/ George Garrastegui, Jr.
Works In Process w/ George Garrastegui, Jr.
How Creatives Work.

About your host

Profile picture for George Garrastegui

George Garrastegui

George is an educator, designer, advocate, and curator looking to elevate the creative process by shifting the focus to how we work over what we produce.