Sean McCabe (the short version)
You may know me as seanwes. I co-founded Bold Perspective, a San Antonio based design firm. I am a Type Designer, Illustrator, Interface Crafter, Musician, Christian, Husband, iPhone Photography Enthusiast, and Coffee Lover.
Contact: Follow me on Twitter | Send me an Email
Design
You could call me a perfectionist. You would also be right. No denying it, I have an eye for detail and I like it that way. The trick is utilizing that perfectionism in a way that improves that quality of my work (thankfully something I do a good job of).
My style tends to be rather clean and on the simple side. I love meticulous detail and smart whitespace. I find pleasure is utilizing details in an almost subconscious way to achieve balance in a design.
Of course all this goes to waste if it’s not backed up by a solid foundation on Design Professionalism. For this reason, I write on the topic of good design. This not only helps to illustrate my knowledgeability on the subject but also serves to educate others.
Typography
It’s funny, as a kid I thought I was pretty strange. I always found myself drawing letter forms throughout middle school and high school. My homework was littered with typographic illustrations. The artistic friends I had all seemed to draw cartoons, or paint still life, but for some odd reason I was drawn to letters. I just really enjoyed hand drawn lettering.
In general, most people see words and read sentences to derive meaning. I saw letters as beautiful as shapes and curves with forms full of beauty. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that I had a love for what was known as “typography”. What a feeling of relief and excitement all at once! I discovered that not only was I not some strange person with a deranged affection, but that there were also thousands of others who shared the same love for type. The internet has a unique ability for making one feel less weird.
While I do enjoy utilizing various typographic forms in my lettering projects, I also develop my own complete fonts. I designed Jokal, to be used as a part of the Abberdein design project. Jokal was intended to look hand made and evoke a very personal and human feel which I think it did a nice job of.
Following Jokal, I designed GeoCon. It’s a very sleek font—lightweight and geometric.
Learn more about lettering »
Music
I live, breathe, sleep and dream music. I’ve been playing piano for about 18 years. When I was 5, a family friend gave us an upright piano. I would come home from church and play the songs I heard on the piano. My parents saw me playing by ear and recognized my potential by investing in piano lessons starting at age 6. Over the next 10 years, I took a total of about 7 collective years of theory intensive piano lessons.
The theory and classical training is what I owe much of my technical skill to. This allowed me to teach myself to play guitar at age 15. I’ve since played both instruments in a couple of bands, often times both instruments in the same song.
I am also blessed with perfect pitch, meaning if you play a note on a piano without me looking I can play it back on the first try. This also enables me to know exactly what key a song is in, as well as whether an instrument is in tune. This is certainly beneficial for impromptu playing, however it can also be information overload.
When I listen to a song, I hear all of the melodies, harmonies, bass, and rhythm individually—yet simultaneously. At times it can be difficult to try to “turn off” this technical assessment of a song and simply enjoy it. I think it’s for this reason that I am very intrigued by symphonic music scores. I would like someday to take the time to compose some of the more complex musical ideas that are in my head. What I often end up doing is “dumbing” down what is in my mind in order for it to be possible to play.
Realizing the limitations of what is playable with two hands is what made digital music production appealing to me. By composing with software and midi I could achieve many technical melodies that simply were not possible to create with two hands.
Photography
The most accurate label would probably be “iPhone Photography Enthusiast.” Ironically, I have a DSLR, but rarely use it—instead favoring my ever-present iPhone. Purists will cringe, I’m sure, but I like taking the iPhone to it’s limits and taking the best possible shots I can. I also have an affection for macro photography. It’s the little details in life that are often overlooked that fascinate me, and this is no exception.
You can follow me on Instagram. I’m fond of skies, macros, and typography so you’ll mostly see me post those. Though lately, it’s mostly hand-drawn lettering.