Hand Lettering Documentation
My Research.
The Process Well, I started off this semester with a desire to study the art and design of hand lettering... Why has it been so useful to design for years? What are the origins? How has it evolved over time? How does it differentiate from calligraphy? What makes good hand lettering versus bad? What tools have been used to create it? I gained an interest in this art form when I was a freshman in college, but never took the time to study the history behind it. My main focus was progressing my lettering skills as much as I could. I would be lettering random words or phrases non-stop, whether it was in my free time or during a boring class lecture. I realized it was time to sit down and gain as much knowledge as possible.
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The Origins So, I sat down and started. I didn’t know where to start, but I found myself going way back to prehistoric periods to see what information I could discover. Hand lettering can be traced back to ancient times, but I decided to focus on when it was prominent in the English world, starting from the late 19th century. This art form is derived from calligraphy, but made it’s own life from sign painting. It uses similar decorative and cursive elements as calligraphy, but turns it into an art form. American capitalism and industrialization resulted in the need for advertising. Thus came sign paintings on the sides of buildings to brand the company’s product.
The Evolution I wanted to focus strictly on hand lettering, so I didn’t want to go down the history of calligraphy path. Lettering took the florals, but turned them into a design element. As stated on the previous page, sign paintings were used in order to advertise products for companies, transforming hand lettering as an art to hand lettering as design. When corporations saw how successful hand lettering was at increasing the number of customers, they started using it for other purposes: newspapers, book covers, film titles, packaging, logos, and social media.
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The art o drawing letters
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Hand Lettering This art form focuses on the legibility of the letters to create a unified and appealing design. Lettering often deals with just a word or phrase. These are drawn for a particular use and no typefaces are involved. It is the result of careful decision-making. It is the product of determined calculation on how that curve or shape should look. Characteristics of hand lettering are as follows: • • • • •
Suitable for large scales like posters, murals, advertisements, etc. Typically use a brush pen Organic, meaning the letters flow freely Customized to the designer’s desire Used for menus, flyers, signs, or branding
Th Calligraphy In the simplest of terms from typography expert Gerrit Noordzij, “calligraphy is writing–a single pass of the pen/tool to write as a form of art.” It is an emotional form of writing, typically very meaningful to its recipient. Writing letters uses the same lettering style throughout, using muscle memory as you would with your handwriting. • • • • •
Based on penmanship Same typographical anatomy throughout Use a nib pen with ink Almost always formal and ornamental Used on old documents, occasion cards, wedding invitations, tattoos
he art of writing letters
Good v 06 I judge this to be a good example of nice hand lettering for several reasons. The words fit the panel pretty well, and the “Jerk!� being a different color, size, and being bold give it such an extra oomph. Instead of using an extra exclamation point like the one on the right, we get a nice fat one.
v Bad 07 This comic is referencing the one on the left. What I don’t like about this lettering is that the font is rather boring and there seems to be too much extra space in the bubble, and using an extra exclamation point is lame. There’s no added emotion in this one.
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In Oz’s Bull Pen, the work is centered on typographic design. The designers begin with the client’s or their own rough layout, and then create comprehensive layouts for their suppliers to work from. It’s their responsibility to mark up and order type, and provide lettering. Lettering was the entry-level requirement and function of artists and designers. There were two reasons for using hand lettering in emulation of the typographic effect, when adequate display type was simply not available. Firstly, there was very little choice of large type, especially with fine detail, and secondly, the letterers always had the latest and greatest styles.
Image References.
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Schenectady, NY – demolished in April 2015
Hartford, Connecticut – published in 1911
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
Love Crazy – William Powell
Curly Wurly chocolate bar – early 1970s
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1, 1983 – Tom Orzechowski
Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 #14, 2001 – Cory Petit
The “Bull Pen”, Bertsch & Cooper, Chicago – 1921
Design is thinking made visual