Doc book final by arosenberger

Lettering Junkies Ashley Rosenberger

Lettering Junkies

ÂŠ 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission. The opinions expressed in this book are those of the author only and not those of York College of Pennsylvania. This book is an experimental class project for purely educational design purposes. Design by Ashley Rosenberger | Printed by www.lulu.com

Lettering Junkies

Ashley Rosenberger

Table of Contents Intro

Why I Want to Work by Hand

Interview with Melanie Rodgers

History

Tools

Calligraphy

Drafting the Letters

Painting the Letters

Designers I follow

Reflection

References

Introduction

and lettering has always been something I have been interested in. With school, all the projects, and working I have not had much time to dive in and start lettering. To some people, hand lettering is just the fancy lettering on chalkboard menu signs, but there is so much more to it. Lettering is all around us, from advertisements and logos, to places like Instagram and Pinterest. Hand lettering is completely different than typography, in the sense that the creation of it happens by your hands rather than on the computer. It is the experimentation of different styles and more personalized to the artist because of the human element added to it with all the imperfections. It is the drawn letters you see ion signs, album covers, movie titles, packaging, and even book covers. Inspiration can be found around any corner. To create a composition purely from lettering all by hand is what I have been eager to learn. To get a break from constantly working on the computers and to get my hands dirty in making something from my own two hands. Over the summer I have been looking at lettering books, following different people who letter on Instagram and seeing what they create, and filling up Pinterest boards with hand lettering pictures. With all of the research I have been looking at, the inspiration was easily there, I just did not have a lot of time to sit down and really practice it. During this semester of college, I have registered

to take a class called Lettering Arts where I am eager to learn the basics of hand lettering and to improve as the projects advance. I decided to document my process from where I am at now with lettering and show how I improve over the next few months with the different projects and styles I will have learned from the class. This process started early in September and continued all the way until the end of November. Some people will also confuse hand lettering with calligraphy. Now while that can be an area of lettering, it has its own distinctive style and function. With calligraphy, it is all about loading up a dip pen with ink and carefully constructing the letterforms. There are various size nibs to use with the dip pens that effect the sizes of the thick and thin strokes. The tools used for calligraphy also control how the letterforms will look with the angle you have the nib at, how curves function, and when the ink starts to run out at the end of a letter. If mistakes are made, then you have to start the whole thing over and work for a better finished piece. Most of the other forms of hand lettering are about drawing the letterforms rather than writing them. There is a lot a drafting that goes on before the final piece is complete. The initial drawing then gets revised over and over again until the artist is satisfied. Unlike calligraphy, if mistakes happen, they can be fixed.

Why I Want to Work By Hand

n today’s world, technology is becoming more advanced every day. I mean, there is even a hotel in Japan that has robots as their staff. You can’t even get away from computers now at most jobs. This is especially true in the design world. Before the computer, and the internet, and of course Illustrator, everything in graphic design was done completely by hand. People were able to specialize in different aspects it. It would take hours and even days to complete a design that can now be made in a fraction of the time. Thanks to the vast amounts of typefaces that are constantly being created, choosing a typeface for the job has become fairly easy. But what if none of the typefaces you own can get the job done? What if you are in a seriously bad rut and only use Adobe Garamond or Franklin Gothic for projects and just cannot seem to choose another typeface? If only there was a typeface that could perfectly fit the mood or style you are trying to design and have complete control over how it will fit in the space. Well there is, it is called “your hands”.

Think about it, when you are using a preexisting typeface the work has already been done for you. Each typeface has its own characteristics that stands out in how it functions. Creating type with your hands, however, gives you complete control over how you want it to look like. Working with your hands instead, of a mouse and screen, lets you experiment with the letterforms. You have more lead way to express your style and try things you would not normally see in a typeface. Hand lettering allows you to use a vast majority of tools. You can use pencils, microns, sharpies, brush pens, nib pens, and brushes to name a few. Each tool has its own distinct characteristics and functions differently to create different textures and weights. There is also a sense of loss of control with the tools. You can still be tight and picky with your drawing, but you can also loosen up and let the tool guide you to create each letterform. I chose to work by hand instead of working on a computer, because it is a relaxing break from always being on the computer. Most of the design projects I have done so far in my

classes, have been on the computer. Now there may have been parts of the projects where I created work by hand, such as thumbnails or illustrations that needed to be scanned into the computer, but the majority of the projects have been digitally made. Pulling away from the screen allows me to really see how my design will look on paper, and how the colors, and layouts work within the space. I can still apply typographical aspects like leading and kerning when I am revising or cutting out the design. There is a whole new set of frustrations when working in this manner, like brushes constantly running out of ink or messing up and not being able to simply hit the undo button like nothing ever happened, but I believe the finishing piece is more rewarding when it was made by hand. The entire process leading up to the final design being made only from your hands, and not a machine, makes it so much more personal because this was something you made solely by your hands. There is more of a relaxing component to letting the tools create the marks as your hand guides them. The loss of control can create beautiful aspects as it was created by chance instead of intentional decisions. Painting the insides of the letterforms can even be relaxing at times because you do not have to focus on any other aspects of the piece except to fill the letters in.

Interview with Melanie Rodgers

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have already explained why I wanted to work by hand and take a break from the computers, but I also wanted to get someone else’s view on hand lettering and working by hand. I was able to sit down with Professor Melanie Rodgers who is the head of the Graphic Design program at York College of Pennsylvania and has also been teaching her own hand lettering class called Lettering Arts that is only offered in the fall semesters. When I asked her if I could interview her really quick for my documentation project, she was thrilled that I wanted to include her opinion in my book and we finally figured out a time that would work for both of us. I tried to keep my questions short and to the point so they would not all become redundant, or drag out into someone else’s appointment with her since this was during advising season for her. The first question I asked her was “Why do you enjoy working by hand?” She began to tell me how she began in her roots, that doing things by hand was how she learned how to do in school since there was no computers at the time. It also gives this sense of comfort and nostalgic feeling, especially since she did this a lot as a kid. Professor Rodgers also sees hand lettering as a nice break from the computers since in the past couple of years everything has been done digitally. It provides a nice contrast to all of the digital work that is out there by adding a human touch to it that will lead to the imperfections that you cannot get by using the computer. This ties nicely into the moto she uses in her hand lettering class she got from James Victore: Feck Perfuction. To get an idea of how she creates her lettering pieces I asked if she could explain her process for creating a piece. She replied with how she tends to start with a really dumb idea or a phrase she hears from someone and letters her reaction to it. In dull faculty meetings when she gets bored, she will start lettering what she hears or what she is thinking and starts to goof around with how it looks. When she finds a doodle she loves, she will go through the drafting process of putting tracing paper over top of it, draft it out by using rulers and triangles so she can then refine it and start transferring it down. After transferring it down onto the surface of her choice, she will fill it in by using either paint or ink and try not to make it too tight. Her love of language is what she goes to, to find inspiration, she goes with what she hears throughout the day. Professor

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[4] Rodgers would letter what she would hear and begin playing around with it, even creating small designs on her phone or tablet. She will also try to look up different words for the ones she wants to use to try and create a new take on it. Another question I had for Professor Rodgers was, what in her opinion, is the most challenging aspect of hand lettering. For Professor Rodgers, the most challenging aspect when lettering is to change up the composition and color. She loves all the mechanical components of the process, like drafting the letters, and tightening all of the letterforms up. She does, however, tend to justify all of her words when she either paints on canvas or inks on board. She does try to change up the compositions for her pieces, but she always tends to go back and keep justifying it. Another aspect she told me she struggles with, is trying to pick out colors to use in her pieces. A few of the colors she tends to gravitate towards are reds and greens. For her pained pieces on canvas, she will tend to use a shade of grey as the background color for the piece. A way that she overcomes this struggle is by going to Colourlover’s website and searches through the different palettes of colors. I wrapped up the interview with one final question. This question pertained to her hand lettering class that she teaches here at

the college, which was “what are the biggest improvements you see in your students?” The biggest improvement she sees by far is students having steady hands by the end of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, she would see a lot of students struggling to get the hang of the different tools that we use, but by the time the semester is over, the students’ usage of the tools greatly improves from all of the practice. The disadvantage of constantly using the software on the computer is that it limits the capability of what our hands can do. She also stated that if the classes here could be five hour classes, instead of the two and a half hour classes we have now, it would greatly help students improve by having more time to work and practice with the tools and techniques. After the interview concluded, I thanked her for taking time out of her day to meet with me to talk about hand lettering and working by hand. This gave me insight on what the process can be like for one particular designer to create work, and some of the challenges that can be faced.

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History

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he origins of lettering can be traced back to several areas throughout history. Egyptian hieroglyphics, the development of cuneiform, and the ancient Greek alphabet, to name a few, are all forms of early hand lettering [7]. The history of lettering is visible in the design changes which took place over the centuries; even the lay observer may understand much of this history by even just observing the changes in the appearance of the lettering. Lettering is not an isolated principle, there is an ensemble, or general affect, to be considered; lettering must be placed and styled properly, and given the correct tone or pattern on the page or surface. Other early forms of lettering were Roman lettering; runes and medieval hands; the Carolingian minuscule and derivative types; humanistic writing front; the effects of the Industrial Revolution on lettering and more.

Roman handwriting, also known as Roman cursive, a scratchy, often barely legible system of writing capital letters by hand. It was used by secretaries, businessmen, and even emperors to hand-write commands. Later in the period, a new Roman alphabet evolved. It was still very scruffy, though many of the letter-forms had been simplified - such as ‘B’ had changed to look more like ‘b’ and ‘D’ more like ‘d’, etc. If you have not picked up, they were basically turning capitals to minuscule or ‘lower case’ letters which we use today [8]. This style was, however, difficult to read and began to transform into a new style that was much easier to read. This new style was called Uncial and was created by using a broad-edge pen nib that would create large letters and could even include thick and thin strokes to the letterforms [9]. Each region and time period took the main standard of lettering and gave it their own style. During the

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Carolingian Empire, the standards of lettering was script and became the Imperial standard. This style slowly turned into the Gothic style in the eleventh century and became widely popular throughout Europe. The Gothic style made lettering more compacted and letterers could begin putting more words on a single page at a time [11]. One of the earliest forms of hand lettering came from the scribes creating manuscripts and bibles. Because every letter was created by hand, it would take months, even years to complete one book. Since producing these books took so much time and money, only the wealthy were able to afford them. These books, however, would include decorative drop caps to help the reader

figure out where a new section would begin. The lettering for these books were done starting with a general layout of the page and then ruled with a pointed stick before they could begin working with the ink and either quill feather or reed pen [12]. The manuscripts were often created by laying in the text first and leaving spaces for the illuminations to be added in afterwards. When the printing press was invented and movable type was popular, printing books would soon replace creating the books by hand to save time and money. The type styles that were created, however, were based on the current lettering style of the scribes. The letterpress printing still had its restraints during this time due to the few amounts of type styles that were available.

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With the invention of the lithograph and chromolithographs for colored pieces, designers could design the styles they needed and add ornaments to them. These were widely used for poster designs that would advertise events, shows, and products. Chromolithography was also used for packaging designs where the designer was able to hand letter the brand with any ornaments and embellishments they desired. After the Victorian era, came the Art Nouveau era which consisted of using abstracted shapes and flat areas. This period was influenced by the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. These prints would consist mainly of young women with swirling hair and clothes to achieve idealized perfection, extravagant decorative elements, and stylized lettering to fit in the space of the composition [15]. This style during the Art Nouveau period became an influence many decades later during the psychedelic movement. These psychedelic posters reflected back on this style with the intense color vibrations and the large hand lettered words [16]. Designers and letterers are constantly looking back at the past movements and time periods. When creating a piece of hand lettering, looking back on the past is an abundant source of influences. These past styles can help you create the style that you are looking for to incorporate into your work. By using the same tools and techniques that were used throughout hand letteringâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history, we are still able to recreate these past iconic styles. Lettering would not be where it is at today if it was not for the need to communicate in a way everyone could understand. Humanityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s constant need to improve and redefine current ideas is what caused letterers in the past to experiment and create new ideas with their work.

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Tools

hen working on lettering by hand, there are a numerous number of tools that you could use. The different tools can also help create a particular style as well. If you are creating a piece in a more traditional style like Gothic, Roman, or Bookhand, to name a few, using tools like the speedball pens with adjustable nibs or square edge brushes, could be used to help recreate that style. These pens and brushes were used mainly in calligraphy to create the variations of thick and thin strokes. For creating a composition to be drafted, just about any tool - markers, pens, brushes, etc., can be used to create the composition. When drafting or painting the letters out, the essential tools are a T-square ruler, triangles, rulers, and pencils or pens. The ruling pen will be needed after the drafting is completed and transferred onto the final surface. Brushes will also be needed to fill in the outlines with either ink, paint, or gouache. With trying out new tools or learning new techniques, there are always different struggles that comes with them. For instance, with the pen and nibs used for calligraphy, you have to

constantly be reloading the pen up with ink so then it will not run out in the middle of a letter. Creating certain letters also has to be done in parts when working with this tool. Since you cannot necessarily make upstrokes with this tool, you would have to create the letters by using either down strokes or to the sides. Another tool that can cause frustration is the ruling pen. Once you load the ruling pen up with either ink or gouache, you have to use it quickly so it will not start to dry up in the pen. It also runs out very quickly, like the nib pens, especially on surfaces like canvases, and leaves you constantly reloading the pen. Since you only really use the ruling pen on the final surface, it is very important to let sections dry instead of trying to complete it all at once, because you do not want to accidentally smear it. Brushes, for the most part, are fairly easy to use, especially since they come in so many sizes, but you would have to still be mindful when using them. When working on a curve with a brush, you would have to make sure that it does not fan out and overshoot the curve, or if it has a strand sticking out and ends up going outside the edges.

Calligraphy

he first area of lettering that was explored was calligraphy. Given a quick demo, by the professor, on an introduction to calligraphy, and how to use the tools, we were also given a packet with alphabets in several styles, showing how to create each letter, to practice using the pen and ink. These styles included, Roman, Gothic, Italic, and Flourish alphabets, both capital and lowercase, and numeric values. We spent the first day using large sheets of paper, that was available in the classroom, setting up lines for the baseline, x height, and ascenders and descenders according to the style and the size of the tool. Depending on what size nibs we were using for the pen determined how large the letters were going to be. To figure out where to place each guideline for the letters, we had to dip the pen in ink and stack the nib width on top of each other for each section - x heights, ascenders, and descenders, according to specifications on the packet for each style. Starting out with shaky hands and becoming frustrated with the pen constantly running out of ink, by the end of class we were starting to get the hang of the different styles. On the second day of working with calligraphy, we were instructed by the professor to pick a style and to focus on improving upon writing the forms. We brought in a small quote to write for us to really get use to focusing on how the individual letterforms are written. I decided to focus on the flourish style with my quote. The quote I brought in was “those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Instead of writing on the large sheets of paper we began to write our quotes on tracing paper. The tracing paper was much smoother to write with the ink on it. Once we got the hang of writing the letters we were using, we could begin to add our own flare to it and embellish certain letters. The practice during this class was leading up to our first project. The project was to find a small quote or passage and to write it in the style we selected to work our way up to writing a good copy on parchment paper. The quote I chose for the practice was okay, but I was not really in love with it and did not want to spend the next few class periods writing that quote over and over again. The quote I chose to write that would be my final was “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” by Ralph Emerson.

I felt like this quote was a good match for the flourish style by the use of loopy and ornate letterforms to represent the individuality the quote is talking about. After choosing the size nib I wanted to use for this, I then set up my lines for the quote. I started by making five nib width dashes on top of each other for the X height. I then added three more nib width dashes to the top for the ascenders and three to the bottom for the descenders. The first copy was a bit shaky as it was the first time writing this quote, and without any spell checks it was easy to make mistakes. The first copy I made was a bit too spaced out, so over the next few copies I worked on condensing my words and writing a bit smaller, so they would fit nicely on to a page.

Other the next few class periods we were working on perfecting our quotes. Each day it would take me one or two copies to get myself warmed up and revising the rough drafts. For each copy, we had to write up marks to correct like letters being too close, the spacing is different between words, or letters not aligning along the baseline properly. After countless amounts of times rewriting the quote over and over again and making revisions on each draft, it was finally starting to come together. Once I felt like it was where I wanted it to be, I could start cutting out each line to start centering the quote up. I measured each line to fine the center so the alignment of each line will be equal. I was not completely happy with how the capital "t" was

looking so I made a few more copies of the word “to” until I found the one that looked the best and replaced the original one with the new one. After taping the lines together, I did one more draft on a piece of tracing paper to make sure everything looked right and it was lining up properly. I then grabbed a piece of scrap paper of the parchment paper and letter a few words and letters to practice before writing on the final copy. Writing on the parchment paper was a bit difficult. It felt like the nibs would get caught on the small hairs of the paper, and it did not glide as smoothly as it would on the tracing paper. Writing certain letters, like “g”, that have a lot of curves to them were more difficult to write because the pen does not work well when writing upstrokes. After writing a few words and letters on the parchment paper, I grabbed the actual size paper and went over to the light table to begin the final. I measure and aligned how the rough draft was centered under the parchment paper to make sure it was in the center. Nerves were building

up as I began to start the final. One small mistake and I would have to write a new copy. I made it through the entire quote and author slowly but surely. It still looked like it could be a little smoother, so I took another sheet and wrote it all again, happier with how it turned out. The individuality of the flourishes and some of the letters really worked well with the quote, as no two letters looked exactly alike. It was interesting to see everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final at the critique. With only a few styles we could choose from, everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final had their own unique style put into it. After the critique, we began to work on taking what we have learned from this project and appling it onto a larger piece. This was just supposed to be a day where we took our knowledge of calligraphy and had fun trying new ideas. We could get more experimental with the

style and use more tools, like pastels and chalk. For the last half of class, we were mostly working on the large sheet of paper, dedicated for the entire class to fill up with lettering. The loss of control with working big contributed to how the outcome of the finished piece looked, because of how the ink runs out on the brush. Instead of being tight with how the letters were constructed, we could really let loose and let the tools take charge. Working big also allowed us to focus on composition and creating unique styles. Calligraphy opened my eyes to the amount of time and work that goes into even a small phrase to strive for perfection when writing. The pickiness and extra care that goes into each and every letter pays off in the end when you are satisfied with what you have created. It is a good skill to know as it sets up some of the aspects when drafting out lettering.

Drafting the Letters

he next project we were focusing on was drafting the letterforms. The professor handed us a paper with â&#x20AC;&#x153;letter loverâ&#x20AC;? on it in both serif and san-serif for us to practice drafting on it. She gave the class a quick demo on how we should draft the letters with the T square ruler and triangles. The san-serif letters were the easiest to draft because there were no terminals that we had to worry about. When drafting the practice letters, we began by taping down a piece of tracing paper over top of it and making sure it was taped down to the table so it could not move. With the T square ruler, we could draw over all the horizontal lines of the letters, then trace over the vertical lines using the straight side of the triangle on the T square. Going through and tracing all the horizontal lines first, and then all the vertical lines was a lot quicker

of a process than going through and completing each individual letter at a time. Drafting the curves is a whole other issue. To get the curve you are looking for, you follow the same process of using the T square and straight side of the triangles to draft small dashes for the horizontal and vertical parts of the curves. Using the angled side of the triangle can allow you to make the small dashes of the curves in between the vertical and horizontal parts of it. There will still be spaces in between the dashed lines of the curves, but they can be filled in with the ink. After the letterforms were all drafted, we were then able to start filling them in with the ink. Using a small square brush, we had to practice keeping a steady hand so the ink will not go outside the lines that we made. This was a tedious process because you had to keep your hand as still as possible and go slow when you got near the edge of the letters. Since there are

spaces left between the dashes on the curve parts, all you did for them was to carefully connect them together by using the brush. You want to take it slow and take it a dash at a time so the curve does not get shaky and uneven. By the end of the words my line quality improved and the letterforms were much straighter. For the actual project, we were going to be lettering what our burlesque names would be. To get these names, we used the name of our first pet and the name of the first street we lived on. The lovely name I am stuck with is Hershey Glen Valley. Needless to say, it was a fun class laughing at what everybody’s burlesque names are. For the next class, we were instructed to have ideas on what we wanted these to look like. For my sketches, I looked up old candy advertisements to try to get ideas on what Hershey could look like. I ended up deciding on lettering Hershey out in cursive while Glen Valley was in a san-serif style and in all caps to contrast against the cursive. I also made Glen Valley into one word so it could act as a last name. Once I chose the style I wanted to letter my words in, I had to figure out the scale and composition of the words. The composition I went with was to have Glen Valley centered underneath Hershey with the “y” wrapping around it to create a space to fit in. After going through multiple pieces of tracing paper, working out how the letters would look, and revising each draft, I finally got a copy that I was going to use for my final. Drafting out my final was the same process as drafting out the “letter lover” practice. It was more challenging to draft out Hershey

because the entire word was made mainly out of curves. Once the drafting was finished, the next step was to graphite up the back, so we could then transfer it on to the board we were to use for our final. Using the light table to see the letters, we used pencils to graphite the outline of the letters. The next step was to center the tracing paper on the board, tape it down so it would not move, and begin transferring the composition to the final. For the final, I began drafting it out like I have done previously. When handling the curves, I took my pen and started making very short strokes back and forward, following the outline of the letters to create the form. When I was finished, I was left with a pencil outline on the board. Since the lines were

a little too dark, I had to use a kneaded rubber eraser to press against it to create a softer, lighter outline. Now it was time to outline it with the ruling pen. The ruling pen can be used with either ink or paint to create perfectly straight lines of varying widths when using it up against a ruler. The tip of the ruling pen I bought from the collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bookstore was not the best. Like many other people in the class, we needed the tips on ours filed and smoothed down so it would not drag on the paper. Loading up the ruling pen with ink required using a small brush to add ink through the side of the pen, which loaded very smoothly. With the ruling pen, you only wanted to use it on the straight areas using a

ruler or triangle to keep the line straight. Once you have made all the lines you can, without placing the ruler over a line you have drawn, it needed to dry. Waiting for the ink to dry was frustrating, because I am so used to constantly working on the computers where the only thing you have to wait for is for the program to start up. Working on the computers allow you to continue working and completing a project without having to wait around for things to dry. You did not want to be impatient with waiting for the ink to dry, or you run the risk of smearing it on the final copy. Slowly but surely, I made it through tracing over all the straight pieces with the ruling pen. To handle the curves, we had to connect them to the straight lines, like when we did the practice piece. Since the first name was practically all curves, I had to do a lot of the inking freehanded and following

the faint pencil outlines. This was the most challenging part, because I did not have a lot of straight lines already done with the ruling pen, so I had to be very cautious about where the ink was going. At the beginning of the word, my letters looked a little shaky while I was still trying to get into the groove of it. By the end of the word, my curves were looking much smoother without having to go back through and try to smooth them out. While I was working on this piece at my house, I could only do Hershey with exceptions to the thin tail of the “y” since I did not have a small enough brush to complete it or Glenvalley. The next day in class I was able to use the professor’s tiny brushes to fill in the rest of the “y” and all of Glenvalley. After I was finished filling in all the letters, there was some touch ups that needed to be done to cover up and fix my little mishaps. We were supplied with plaka to use for touching up our names. Most of the issues I needed to fix was smoothening out more of the curves and opening up more space in the “r”. I did have to use the ink to fix up some of the mistakes too by adding more

ink to areas like the tail of the “y” to make it smoother without making it too skinny. Overall, I was proud of the work I made. I was happy with how the cursive in Hershey contrasted with the san-serif all caps in Glenvalley and how it sat in between the tail of the “y”. This project definitely gave me more appreciation for working on projects by hand, when today it could have been easily done on the computer in not even half the time it took to complete this. Creating work in this process allows us to take a drawing or thumbnail sketch, and turn it into a completed composition. Even though the process was long, it was definitely worth the repetitiveness of all the drafting and tracing over to get a good, solid outline of the composition. Working in this manner also helped me improve on keeping my hand steady, especially on complicated areas like curves.

Painting the Letters

or the next project in my lettering arts class, we were introduced to working with guache. To get us use to working with this paint like medium, we were given a practice assignment that involved more drafting. The practice project we received from the professor was to create an interesting composition out of a capital serif and capital slab serif "t". After completing the drafting show biz name project, drafting out these t’s was going to be much easier. It took me a fairly short amount of time to draft out the t’s, since the slab serif was completely made up of straight lines and the serif did not have too big of curves. Once they were drafted out, I cut them out and started arranging them into a composition that I liked. The composition that I came up with had the slab serif "t" in the center, while the serif "t" was positioned diagonally downward overtop of the other "t". We were instructed to only use two colors for this practice assignment. The professor gave us a box of different colored markers for us to play around with, to try to find colors that we liked. With me being picky with colors, it took me a while to find two colors out of the box that I liked together. After filling up a scrap piece of paper, I finally found two colors that I was going to use. I chose to use a dark navy blue for the slab serif "t", and a lighter green for the serif "t". Looking around the studio and seeing the different ideas people had about creating these, I did not just want to simply just completely fill in each "t" with its color. I took the drafted-out composition that I

made on tracing paper, and took a trip out to the copy machine down the hall to pull a copy of my letters to see what I could do with my colors. On the first copy, I just filled in the two t’s completely with the colors just so I could see how they would look. On another copy, I decided to try and only have the serif "t" in the front, the solid green while the slab serif "t" in the back was made out of stripes. After that, I made another copy and kept the serif "t" completely green again, but this time I had stripes on the slab serif "t" going diagonally both way to create a latus pattern. With another trip out to the copy machine for more copies, I had the slab serif "t" completely dark blue this time and created the green "t" out of stripes. Since this was just a rough sketch to work out the colors and patterns for the t’s, I was not neat about the lines that I made with the stripes on the green "t", but there was something I particularly liked about this one. I made another copy of this one, being a bit neater when I made the lines for the stripes, and I figured out that this was how I wanted my t’s to look. After I figured out how I wanted my t’s to look, I had to draft them out in the same process as I did in the last project. Drafting out the serif "t" took a little longer because I had to draft out every single line that I needed for the stripes, while measuring them out so they would have equal spacing. I then followed the same process of using a pencil to graphite up the back of it, and to then transfer it down by using a scrubbing motion of the pen so a faint pencil line will appear on the board. Earlier in that class period, the professor had given the class a demo on how to use the gouache with the ruling pen, and when applying it with a brush. When getting the colors ready, we would have to add a certain amount of water to the gouache, depending on where we were going to use it. If we were going to use it to fill in an area with a brush, then we did not need to add a ton of water to it, but if we were going to use it with the ruling pen to draw out the lines, then we needed to add enough water to it until it was about the consistency of heavy cream. The next class period when I was ready to start using the gouache, I got everything out that I would need and started mixing the gouache up to get the colors that I needed. The dark blue that came in the set was not dark enough on its own, so I had to mix in a little black to get the right shade of the color that I needed. I created two piles of the blue, one pile for filling

the inside of the "t", which would be a thicker consistency, and a thinner pile to use with the ruling pen. I had a small piece of scrap board that I used to practice a line or two with the ruling pen before I started on the final board. I started to become frustrated when I could not get any of the gouache to come out of the ruling pen at all. When I asked the professor to come help me, she saw that it was an easy fix. I did not thin down the gouache enough with water so it was all sticking inside the ruling pen. Once she rinsed out the ruling pen and mixed in more water to make it thinner, it was coming out much smoother. I started tracing over the outlines of the slab serif "t" because I was putting off the stripes on the serif "t" for as long as I could. Just like with the ink, I could only go so far until I would have to stop working and let it dry for a bit. I would wave my triangle over it to dry to get it to dry a little quicker. After it was dry enough for me to keep working, I finished the rest of the outlining and I could then start filling it in. When the professor was going over how to fill in an area, we needed to go in multiple directions to try to get the color as flat as we could. In the larger areas, it was easy to do this, but when it came to the smaller areas of it, it became much harder and I had to be careful to not paint out over the edges. The hardest part about this piece was filling in the blue in between the stripes of the green "t". I probably should have done the serif "t" first, but like I said, I was really wanting to put that one off. Mixing up the gouache for the green did not take long. I added in a little bit of white so the green would be lighter, and I also

now knew how much water to add to it this time. Outlining the serif "t" did not take too long, but before I could finish it, class was just about over and I needed to start cleaning up before the next class showed up. The next day during the half an hour break I have, between my previous class and my lettering arts class, I went straight down to the studio to get everything set up to continue where I left off, so then I would not be falling too far behind. I saved the small palette of gouache I mixed up last time in a zip lock bag so instead of remixing both colors and trying to match what was already on the board, all I had to do was add a tiny bit of water to soften it up. Filling in the green stripes was a bit of a challenge since they were very thin. I had to carefully dab the gouache onto the board to try and keep it from going over the lines. After I finished both tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, there was a little bit of touching up to do. Instead of using any plaka like in the drafting project, I had to use my Exacto knife to carefully scrape up the unwanted gouache. I had to be careful not to press in too hard with the knife to avoid tearing up the board. Later that class, once everyone was done the "t" practice, we sat them out on the table together to talk about them and what it was like using gouache for the first time. Although the compositions were variations of the tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stacked on top of each other, everyone did their own style with them. It was very interesting to see how each of the tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s were similar in form and composition and yet so different in colors and how they were filled in.

For the next actual project, we were to take the knowledge we learned with the gouache, and apply it on canvas at a larger scale. For this next project, we were instructed by the professor to choose a word or phrase we like, translate it into a foreign language, and create a painting of it in gouache on the canvas. To get started, she gave us a quick demo on how to gesso the canvas to prep it for the gouache and to fill in any bumps. The container of gesso she had for us to use was white, so she mixed in a tiny bit of the color gouache she wanted to use in the small container she had scooped some out into. Since the gesso dries darker it was pretty clear that a little color really does go a long way with this. After she mixed up the color she wanted, she took a sponge brush and started quickly applying it to the canvas. It worked better to put it on multidirectional so there would be no streaks in it. After she finished applying the gesso on the canvas and around the sides of it, she set it aside to start drying and showed us a canvas she had done earlier so we could see what it would look like after a few coats. Since I did not have a color scheme picked out yet for my project, it took me a little bit of looking at some different color palettes online to try to find colors that I liked together. I decided to go with a light blue since blue is my favorite color, and I tend to use it in anything I can. When I scooped out the gesso into a paper cup, I added in three drops of the blue gouache

and started mixing it up with the scoop. It created a pretty skyblue color in the cup, which was lighter than what I was planning on going for, but I ended up liking it and decided to use it. When I applied my first coat of gesso on to the canvas, I could barely see a difference from the white canvas. After waiting for it to dry, and fanning it with a triangle to try and speed up the drying process, I could see a little bit more of a difference once it dried a little darker. I decided to add another coat on to it but when it dried I still was not happy with the difference the blue had on the white. I then added another drop or two and mixed it around to try and make the third coat a little darker. After the third coat was applied, I was starting to like the color. I could actually start to see a real difference between the blue and what the canvas used to look like. This ended up taking me right up to the end of class so I left it on one of the shelves for it to dry overnight. The next day in class I was more satisfied with the shade of blue when I saw it completely dried. I could now start working on my phrase. The phrase I ended up choosing for this project was “it is what it is” since we had to keep thee fairly short. I was originally wanting to do my phrase in German, but the translation I found for it was “es ist was es ist” which, to me, sounded too much like English. I wanted it to have a little more foreign flare to it so I ended up choosing Italian which translates it to “È quello che è”. The style we were to paint the phrases in was chosen by the professor to be Futura. Futura is a geometrical san-serif typeface that would be easy to draft out the phrases. Since the e's in my phrase had accent marks that were supposed to be on them, I had to go back on to the computer and print out an "e" with the accent mark and the right size. Since I was not sure what the size of the letters were on the sheet that the professor printed out for us, I had to make a few size variations of the e's that way I would not be printing out paper after paper to try and find the right size. After I had my letters traced out in all caps, so then I would not have to deal with a lot of curves to paint around, I cut them out so I could begin arranging a composition. It was a challenge to arrange my words into an interesting composition since the first and last letter of my phrase are e’s. After multiple trips to the copier to print out my words in various sizes, it felt like I was trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle without the picture of what it should look like, with all

the cut-out words laid out on the table. I eventually figured out my composition and made the e’s the largest words to become a more dominant component. Instead of just transferring my phrase down as is, straight up in Futura, I wanted to challenge myself by adding another design component to it. I ended up creating a line that goes through the center of each letter, and use a lighter orange color on one side, and either a darker orange or dark blue on the other, or “shaded” side. After I graphited up the back side of the drafted letters, I had to carefully transfer it onto the canvas. It was a little more difficult to transfer it down because I had to be mindful not to press down too hard and leave too dark of a line, because it would not erase as easily as it would on board. The next step in the process was to use the ruling pen and outline the areas where the lighter shade of orange would go. I started with

the lighter orange first because I knew that I was definitely going to be using that color. I had to be careful where I was tracing my lines, so then I would not accidentally outline where the darker color would go, or worse, outside of the letterform. Using the ruling pen to trace these lines will help me when I am filling in the letters, so then it will keep the straight edges. This took a little bit of time because I would have to stop and wait for the gouache to dry so it would not smear as I continued working, and I also had to constantly keep refilling my ruling pen with more gouache, because the canvas really sucks in the paint. After I had all the straight edges of the lighter orange sections traced over, I began to start filling in the letters with gouache. I started with the e’s since they were the largest areas to fill in. After the first one was finished, I really had to be mindful about how much gouache I used to fill in each letter because of the

small pot I made up of that color. Filling in the straight sides was quick and easy, because the lines I made with the ruling pen acted as a boarder so I would not have to worry about lopsided edges. The curves, however, were a challenge because for most of them I was not able to create a nice smooth edge with the ruling pen, and ended up having to free hand the curves. I really had to take my time to not go over the outside lines, but to also not go over the lines that will separate the other color from the orange, so then the thickness of each line could stay about equal. I was able to paint in all of the letters with the orange before running out, by adding drops of water when it looked like it was starting to dry up, to really stretching out the gouache. Thankfully I did not have to try to recreate that color. Once all the lighter orange shaded sections were filled in, I began to start outlining the other sections with the ruling pen. I finally decided on what color the darker shade would be, which I decided on going with a darker red-orange color. I ended up really liking the way the two colors worked together because the red adds a subtle difference in color that really makes it stand out. With the red color, I was able to reshape and redefine the parts where the orange and red meet to make sure it is straight. Just like with the orange color, painting in the curves was difficult because I not only had to watch the outside lines, but I also had to really watch the inside lines to not go over the orange and misshapen the curve. After finishing painting in the

letters with both colors, there was a bit of touching up to do. For most of the small errors from overshooting the lines with the ruling pen, I could use the blade from my Exacto knife to gently scrape off the color. I also saved my gesso, which allowed me to fix up any letters that needed to be reshaped. Overall, this was my favorite project because of the details you can create by using the gouache to interact with the letterforms.

Designers I Follow

[18]

[19] ince hand lettering is on the rise of popularity, there are many people out all across the world who hand letter. With just about everything being done digitally now, more and more people are wanting to look back and create more things by hand. There are thousands of people out there who show off their hand lettering all over social media like Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. Below are some of the letterers that I follow on Instagram who really stand out among the sea of hand lettering.

Ian Barnard, @ianbarnard, is a hand letterer, typographer, and calligrapher who lives in the United Kingdom. Along with other projects that he works on, Ian letters for social media, clothing, posters, and also produces fonts. He is constantly posting new pieces of his hand lettering on Instagram and also posts tutorial videos on Youtube. He has a strong love for the community and is always trying to get involved by helping out other designers or setting up projects like the Crowborough Street Pastors [20].

[21] Jeremy Friend, @jeremyfriend, lives in York, Pennsylvania and went to get his BFA in graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He works in York and in Baltimore, Maryland and has also been teaching a hand lettering class at the Maryland Insitute College of Art in Baltimore for about three years. Jeremyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is in branding, logos, typography, hand lettering, and editorial design. On his Instagram account, he posts tons of pictures of what he has been lettering. His style ranges anywhere from brush script to funky letterforms [22].

[23] Joshua Minnich, @joshuaminnich, is from Columbus, Ohio who combines his illustrations with his lettering. With combining his lettering with his illustrations, he tends to use a limited color palette, especially with his national park designs, and really works to make his lettering really fit in with the illustration. He also shows what some of the designs look like on merchandise like hats or T-shirts [24].

[25] Jessica Hische, @jessicahische, is a lettering artist, illustrator, and author who grew up in Pennsylvania. After graduating in 2006 from Temple University for Graphic and Interactive Design, she took on a freelance designer job lettering and creating illustrations for about two years. Since 2009, she went off on her own and had different clients, like Penguin Books, and now she even does speaking engagements. Some of her other clients have been Tiffany & Co., The New York Times, Starbucks, and even Target. She has been working back and forward between San Francisco and Brooklyn. She created the Daily Drop Cap, which was a series of creating one letter of the alphabet each day for a total of creating the alphabet twelve times. She ended the project back in 2011, but it really helped her kick off her lettering career. Aside from all the client and personal projects, Jessica has also served on the Type Directors Club board from 2012 to 2015. She has also been recognized by multiple magazines like Print Magazine and Forbes. Jessica now has her first book, In Progress, out [26].

[27] Cymone Wilder, @simonandmoose, is a letterer and designer in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated from Olivet Nazarene University in Graphic Design. She is currently a designer at Smile Direct Club, but she also does freelance work at Simon and Moose. Her lettering is either on a solid, neutral background, or mixed in with photographs. Along with lettering, she also provides clients with branding, print design, or photography services [28].

Reflection

ver the past few months in my hand lettering class, I can see improvements in myself. Back to the first day of diving into the world of calligraphy, I had shaky hands which caused my letters to be shaky and uneven. Though by experimenting with the different styles, I have been able to apply them in later projects. It has gotten me to begin thinking more creatively on what the letterforms could look like and how to draft them into an interesting composition. The constant practice with the tools, and even continuing to use the same ones for different projects, has helped me build up a feeling for how they should be used. My craft and overall design has really improved during the painted letters project because I became more comfortable with the process. The painted letters project was also my favorite project so far, because we were able to add colors and paint with the gouache. Since the style was already picked out by the professor, I could focus more on the technical aspects of the letterforms and play around with the effects I could make with the colors. As the semester starts to wrap up, I will continue to push myself harder and make room in my schedule to keep practicing this skill.

References 1. Behance. “What You’ve Got.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/37284585/What-Youve-Got. 2. Behance. “The Search Committee.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/37284477/The-Search-Committee. 3. Behance. “Load City USA.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/37284887/Load-City-USA. 4. Behance. “Jussayin.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/37285031/Jussayin. 5. Behance. “No Way.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/37284959/No-Way. 6. File:Psalterium nocturnus 25.JPG. 7. “Importance, Styles and Proportion in Writing Letters (Lettering).” All Articles RSS, graphic-design.knoji.com/importance-styles-and-proportion-in-writing-letters-lettering/. 8. “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. https:// Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f. 9. http://www.creativenetwork.co.uk, Creative Network -. “History Of Calligraphy | Learn all about calligraphy.” Manuscript, www.calligraphy.co.uk/history-of-calligraphy/history-of-calligraphy/. 10. File:Mladší římská kurzíva.jpg 11. Farwell, Stephen. “Calligraphy.” History of Graphic Design, www.historygraphicdesign.com/prologue-to-graphic-design/alphabets/321-calligraphy. 12. Douglas, Ava. “Illuminator.” History of Graphic Design, www.historygraphicdesign.com/prologue-to-graphic-design/illuminated-manuscripts/833-illuminator. 13. File:Ethiopian Biblical Manuscript U.Oregon Museum Shelf Mark 10-844.jpg 14. File:Alphonse Mucha - Job Cigarettes 1.jpg 15. Meggs, Philip B. “Graphic design.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 2 May 2016, www.britannica.com/art/graphic-design#toc242768. 16. Matthews, William. “Psychedelic posters.” History of Graphic Design, www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-information/the-conceptual-image/749-psychedelic-posters. 17. File:Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen - Tournée du Chat Noir de Rodolphe Salis (Tour of Rodolphe Salis’ Chat Noir) - Google Art Project.jpg 18. http://jessicahische.is/remixinggap 19. Behance. “Speedo - Hand Lettering.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/54023265/Speedo-Hand-Lettering. 20. “About.” IAN BARNARD, www.ianbarnard.net/about/. 21. “Work.” The Design Studio of Jeremy Friend, www.jeremyfriend.com/#/black-pixel-studio/. 22. “Work.” The Design Studio of Jeremy Friend, www.jeremyfriend.com/#/black-pixel-studio/. 23. “Adventure is Worthwhile.” Dribbble, dribbble.com/shots/3048452-Adventure-is-Worthwhile. 24. “Joshua Minnich.” Dribbble, dribbble.com/joshuaminnich. 25. http://jessicahische.is/reallyintojaneeyre 26. “Jessica Hische.” Jessica Hische - Press Page, jessicahische.is/bloggable. 27. Behance. “Type | Vol. 2.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/25017181/Type-Vol-2. 28. “About.” Simon and Moose, www.simonandmoose.com/about-1/.