hello - Kate Widdows

A lit neon sign, designed with expressive blue script lettering, spelling out the word

Kate Widdows signing freshly printed letterpress posters she designed for the Sublime Frequencies 15th Anniversary party in Paris.

“A” and “Q” custom designed neon signs in blue and turquoise, each letter with a unique, fanciful typographic design.

“Free Your Mind” psychedelic vintage lettering with a clouds, birds, and sun motif, in pink and yellow, on an old medicine bottle label.

A dense type specimen of the Zaborsky font, at an angle with non-English words and phrases including many diacritic marks and Cyrillic characters.

Read about me in
Portland Monthly.

Read my interview with
Design Week Portland.

Watch my TV interview
on KATU's Afternoon Live.

Hello! I work with organizations, solopreneurs, and fellow creatives to craft impactful typographic logos, publications, infographics, and neon signs.

Need help on a project? Tell me all about it.

LETTERING

"Yuletide Greetings" hand lettered with a brush in black ink, with "Yuletide" in condensed casual capital letters, and "Greetings" in a friendly brush script.

A custom lettering piece of the phrase “Blue Collar Food Snob” in a fancy brush script in black ink, surrounded by a cloud of flourished strokes.

A custom lettered composition of the phrase "A Beautiful Sight," (a fragment of a larger piece) with a mix of wavy art deco capital letters and neon style single stroke script lettering.

A hand lettered drawing of the word “Create” in pencil, with letters in an old heavy black letter calligraphy style, surrounded by flourished strokes and curlicues.

Custom drawn lettering spelling out the word “Neon” in capital letters, with “Scripts” below in a dynamic cursive lettering reminiscent of neon tubing.

The word “Champions” hand lettered with a brush in black ink in a heavy upright script.

The phrase “You are Kind” lettered in a friendly upright script surrounded by a sphere of floursished strokes and decorative ball terminals.

“Free Your Mind” psychedelic vintage lettering on a wavy baseline.

The word “OAKLAND” hand lettered with an inky brush in dynamic capital letters.

The word “Goodbye” elegently lettered on an arced baseline, with several underline strokes of diminishing lengths, ending in the shape of a small heart.

The French phrase “Au Revoir” (which means “goodbye” in English) neatly custom lettered in a compressed italic script, in the style of a calligraphy nib pen, in black ink.

The phrase “Happy Holidays" custom lettered in a vintage style upright script, as if written hastily and implying motion, in black ink.

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LOGOS

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NEON

A blue neon capital letter

A lit neon sign of the word

The French phrase

A pair of authors and their small dog sit on the porch of their house, holding a lit aquamarine blue neon sign that says

A lit neon sign, designed with expressive blue script lettering, spelling out the word

A capital letter “Q” custom designed neon sign in turquoise with a unique, fanciful typographic design.

SEE MORE NEON >>

PRINT

Cover art for “Neon: A Light History” by Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein, with lettering and art based on the original pattern designs for the Earl Carroll Theatre’s fascia neon and channel letters. The sign features a female face in white neon tubing.

Album cover artwork for "Juguya" an LP by Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band, with pattern designs inspired by Burkina Faso's craft culture and lettering as custom drawn shadow type.

A folded map and poster of Portland Oregon's best neon signs, with white lettering on a black background, and a moon, cloud, and stars motif.

The "Above/Inside" poster unfolded and held up by 2 hands, featuring poetry overlaid on a map of Redmond Washington's system of waterways and parks.

Cover design for Oregon Community Foundation's orientation guide.

Three copies of the Bellown Paper, a black and white newspaper with photography and iconography.

Sublime Frequencies 15th Anniversary limited edition silkscreened poster with green and red-orange ink on black paper. The design is dominated by a woman's face (Princess Nicotine) integrated with a large numeral 15 in outline and orange shadow.

SEE MORE PRINT >>

INFOGRAPHICS

Infographic of statistical figures on the incidence of childhood cancer for Aflac.

A collection of icons designed for use in an infographic illustrating how Luna Technologies' hydrocarbon extraction system works, and what products it produces. Icons include a hand pushing a button, a flaming plate, cartridge, strainer, and more.

Infographic chart of the internal structure of non-profit Moochalada, for use in the company’s pitch deck. The design features boxed category names, red arrows, and star burts to illustrate hierarchy.

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Vibrant visuals for busy people.

I have two decades experience helping businesses and organizations clarify and boost their visual impact with strategic custom typography and brand assets systems.

Say a quick hello and let me know what you need help with:

Or, I have a more detailed questionnaire if you need it.