Renée Alexander brings over 30 years of calligraphy expertise to her North Vancouver hand-lettering studio.  She has worked for Government Institutes, Professional Associations, Graphic Designers, Universities as well as private commissions.

After receiving her art diploma in Vancouver, she spent a summer studying at Imperial College in London under Ann Hechle and later studied for two consecutive summers under Sheila Waters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Renée has also studied at Cheerio’s Calligraphy Centre under master lettering artist, John Stevens and has taken workshops from other top lettering artists including Denis Brown, Julian Waters and Yves Leterme.

Renée is a former faculty member in the Continuing Studies Department at Emily Carr University of Art & Design. She has also taught at Capilano University, the WOOL Conference sponsored by Westcoast Calligraphy Society and local Guilds. Renée was thrilled to be part of the faculty for Rendez-Vous 2019 International Lettering Conference where she taught ‘Leaf and Letters’.

Renée has been published in books and magazines worldwide and has exhibited her work both in Canada and the United States. In addition, her work is held in private collections in both countries. Renée’s unique expertise has been called upon for many feature films including tutoring Wynona Ryder in the art of period penmanship for “Little Women”, lettering for the movies “Cousins”, “The Watchmen”, the TV series “Agent X”, as well as lettering and illustrations for Seasons 1 and 3 of the Netflix production of Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.

In 2005, Renée won a contest co-sponsored by CBC Radio 1 and The Georgia Straight to come up with a précis for the 15th Vancouver story. It was in response to the publication of a collected works of fourteen Vancouver short stories, each written by a different local author. Bill Richardson, famed Canadian media personality, then developed the précis into his very own short story leading Renée and Bill to present, together, a reading from the story at Vancouver’s ‘Word on the Street’ event to a packed audience… naturally, hand lettering was a central feature of the story

Renée was honoured to have her short story, ‘Scottish Shortbread’, included in the 2017 Anthology “Sustenance’, edited by Rachel Rose. Profits from this book help low-income families put fresh produce on the table.