Fauxsaics: Nick Misani's travel inspired typographic mosaics

But rather than grouting and tiling, the New York designer and letterer creates the artworks with technology: He explains: "The idea came from a combined love of lettering, interior design, and decorative arts (which, before this project, had never found a point of intersection for me). I first started experimenting with digitally creating mosaics while working for Louise Fili and eventually developed my own technique."

Each illustration is made up of 6,000 to 10,000 hand-drawn and individually-coloured tiles. Nick adds: "Authenticity and realism are essential, so minor imperfections are meticulously drawn into each and every tile. The shoes are added at the end to give the 'fauxsaics' a scale and place."

Apparently, each illustration takes between 12 and 24 hours to create, depending on the complexity of the tiling pattern. You can follow Nick's work most satisfyingly on Instagram @nickmisani.

Born in Milan into a family of jewellery designers, Nick started his formal training studying architecture and industrial design. After briefly living in Japan, he relocated to the States and now works as the senior designer at Louise Fili. Nick specialises in historically-inspired lettering and is fascinated by the convergence of traditional and contemporary forms. He was named an ADC Young Gun, and his design work has been featured in Print Magazine, Fast Company, The Dieline, The Type Director’s Club, Quipsologies/UnderConsideration, Novum, and AIGA.​ Discover more at .

All images courtesy of Nick Misani