Introducing: Lebassis

Lebassis is the latest Futures signing at the Jelly family, and we’re chuffed. Leandro Assis is a Lettering Artist, based in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, known for his zingy colour palette, bold lettering and playful pieces. With his fresh perspective on lettering, Lebassis uses his work as a tool to highlight his values and what means the most to him – Black culture, LGBTQIA+ rights and gender topics. So far drawing the attention of Netflix, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Amazon, Lebassis has worked on digital projects and marketing projects for a variety of clients.

What better way to welcome him into the fold than by having a good old chat to get to know him a little bit more. We talked about what inspires him, what his purpose is as an Artist and his favourite projects.

Tell us about yourself. What’s your story and your journey to where you are now?

My name is Leandro Assis, I’m a lettering artist, illustrator and designer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I was that very shy black, gay guy who was obsessed with teen magazines, sneakers, pop culture, and everything started to make sense for me when I discovered what design was. I’ve done a little bit of everything leading up to now; I’ve worked in advertising, had my time creating crazy websites, art direction and music video direction for Artists that I love and had my own design studio for four years. Today I use all this experience to give life to my own portfolio of work.

Your work is so vibrant and energetic – where do you get inspiration from?

I love projects and opportunities where I can use my lettering to convey a message in the most fun, playful and bold way possible. I draw inspiration from the graphic references from when I was a teenager, which is the time I was discovering myself as a queer Black person. That is where most of my art inspirations come from. The pop songs and album covers I listened to, the movies, TV shows, the books. When I was a kid I was obsessed with Xuxa and her movies (like “Lua de Cristal”) and some of the Trapalhões, a very famous comedy group in Brazil. My teenage years was all MTV Brazil. Internationally speaking, I loved everything that John Hughes did.

How did you get into Lettering specifically and why?

I always had a big crush on typography but it took a long time to discover lettering. I didn’t have the money to buy the fonts I wanted, I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect font for my projects and it was in one of those projects that I started drawing my own letters. I was already able to do calligraphy which I used to my advantage to escape from bullying in school. In the society we live in, having beautiful handwriting is often seen as a “girl thing”, I wasn’t out at the time so I had to try to make different styles of handwriting to escape from the situations I found myself in. It was difficult but looking back now, I made it my own, being able to explore more styles to my lettering.

Tell us your favourite project you’ve worked on so far

I’m so proud of the work I did for YouTube’s Black History Month. It was very open brief and I used it almost like a love letter to my Black references: whether it’s the hairstyles, the clothes we wear, the way we dance, the words that give us strength to continue fighting, the beauty of our skin tones. The Yoodle stayed on YouTube for one entire week and became the official art for this year’s Black History Month on the platform.

We love your work for RuPaul’s Drag Race – can you tell us about it?

This one is very special. I was part of the team responsible for creating the campaign assets: The logo revamp, the lettering, the backgrounds, colour palette and supporting elements for the entire Season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Promo. It’s a perfect combination of elements: First, I was asked by my design idol Aries Moross to be part of the Studio Moross team for this project. Second, it’s RuPaul! He’s so iconic, the show is huge and has influenced so much in pop culture. It’s so beautiful to see people from the LGBTQIA + community influencing each other in a way that says it’s okay to be the way we are. I remember that at the beginning of my career, I was too scared to reveal to the people I worked with that I was gay. I think it was one of the projects my friends liked the most because most of my friends watch RuPaul, so the feedback was very different from other projects I’ve done so far. I loved this experience.

Plus Chobani – we love it! Tell us some more…

I love Chobani too! It was a great experience, mainly because they care so much about design and I was honoured that they liked my work. I created some prints and a poster for the ‘Our Food’ campaign, which aimed to celebrate Black Chefs during Black History Month.

How has the pandemic pushed you and your craft?

To be honest, this period hasn’t inspired me much creatively, especially because I use a lot of observations into my work and I’m unable to follow my process the way I normally do because I can’t leave my home. It’s been a very different process, because I like what the street brings to my work. The pandemic made me connect more with myself, without depending so much on the outside; like trying to see things in other ways, or to remember situations that I’ve already lived through. It’s kind of nostalgic. This also taught me that I don’t need to force myself to do things I’m not comfortable with.

What would you say your purpose is as an artist, and what gives you that motivation?

My purpose is to show the diversity of Black people’s work and that there is room for our excellence.

I didn’t see many people who looked like me when I started out, especially in a typographic industry that mainly consists of white and straight men, so there was a lack of reference from successful Black people in Design to inspire me and prove what is possible. It took years of me designing before I discovered some of my Black design heroes because they’re not mentioned enough. I’ve tried hard to fit into what was expected of “a designer” but I don’t identify with most things. I only managed to find myself professionally when I got rid of that burden. I was able to understand that my lettering was not perfect or that my reference did not always come directly from cultural movements – and realise that’s ok. There are no rules. If I’d had people saying this to me along my journey, it would certainly have been easier. If I can be that person to someone that is starting now, that would be awesome.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope to live in a society where we don’t have to fight for respect and continue exploring the possibilities within what I like to do.