Inspired by an Artist Who Turned to a Typewriter Instead of a Pen, He Built a Career in Typewriter Art

In search of a typewriter for his art, James Cook once joked that every typewriter in his town had been thrown away. He had no idea that comment was the beginning of his creative career.

James Cook had always been fascinated with architecture, drawing famous landmarks he’d seen during his family trips growing up. As he struggled socially in school, the Essex native’s creativity had become his outlet. Then a school project introduced him to an artist who inspired him to devote his passion to typewriter art, a career that’s now earning him thousands apiece.

Speaking to People, Cook recounted his success story, which began when he was researching for a school project involving the use of unconventional tools to create something.

That’s when he learned about the late American artist Paul Smith, who would use a typewriter to create art because he suffered from cerebral palsy and found conventional tools difficult to use. "More than anything, it was his ultimate defiance against his condition that made me want to try it for myself, “ Cook told People.

But Cook didn’t have a typewriter, and as it turned out, finding one wasn’t easy. After scouring antique shops and charity stores in Braintree, England, to no avail, Cook had resigned to the fact that it was a lost cause. Then a chance encounter with a couple, who overheard Cook joking to his father that every typewriter must have already been thrown away, changed everything.

"We have a typewriter. Why don't you buy ours?" Cook recalls the couple telling him. "It was one of those completely random sliding-doors moments that, looking back, changed the direction of my life."

That afternoon, Cook, accompanied by his father, visited the couple's home and bought his first typewriter, a 1953 Oliver Courier typewriter with a lime-green finish for just £15, roughly $20. "As I would later discover, it was probably the best investment I have ever made," he said.

Then began years of learning how to use the typewriter to create art. Cook studied the letters, numbers, and symbols, and how they could be translated into images through repeated strikes and by manipulating the pressure of the strikes. He learned the tricks and techniques while pursuing architecture, until the pandemic hit, and his typewriter art became his full-time job.

Today, the 29-year-old artist with more than a million followers across Instagram and TikTok, creates commissioned pieces and draws iconic landmarks while traveling. He earns as much as $10,000 to $12,000 for large-scale drawings, which could take three to four weeks to create, and around $75 for the smaller prints.

But Cook admits, the business is unpredictable: “You might have three days with lots of orders and then go a week, or even a month, with very little happening. It definitely keeps you on your toes”

Cook has learned to find the rhythm in his art. “Different keys create different marks, densities, and textures, and over time the process becomes almost instinctive,” he says.

But he also says it’s a challenge because there’s no turning back once the key has been struck. For some artworks, he can disguise the mistake by incorporating it into the artwork. But it’s not the same for portraits, explaining, "These are the trickiest, mostly because you are trying to capture someone's likeness," so one wrong strike of a key would require starting from scratch.

Today, Cook has over 100 typewriters, many he received from strangers who just wanted their old typewriters to be put to good use. It’s a long way from celebrity typewriter collector, Tom Hanks, who owns over 300 typewriters, but Cook is happy that he gets to breathe life into these typewriters and even travel with them, each with its own unique history.