Typophile

Designer making the move into hand lettering needs an occasional mentor?

Double Elephant

Hi,
I'm a designer from Oxford, UK. I've been working in the industry for five years and, touch wood, things are going pretty well. My main area of interest lies in contemporary applications of traditional methods. I've been letterpress printing for 6–7 years but have become increasingly aware that my work could sometimes benefit from custom lettering. Not to jump on the band wagon of Jessica Hische et al, current trends seem to be moving in that direction and I'd love to be a part of it!

In my time as a letterpress printer I was lucky enough to work with a very skilled and experienced (and sought after) printer. I'd love to get in touch with an experienced hand lettering artist who could pass on tips and pass just the occasional eye over work in progress.
I tend to work with pencil (sketching and draughting) and then produce the final design in Adobe Illustrator.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks

Andreas Stötzner

“Lettering” embraces quite a lot of ways to do it. Writing, drawing, painting, carving, forging, casting … and much more. I suppose the simple way to get startet is to just show us threee images of what you do and then, according to experience, typophiles will not let you wait that long with some feedback.
Or do you think of hiring a sort of personal tutor?

Chris Lozos

You should probably post the projects that Andreas just mentioned to the "Critique" area of this forum and title it with the Words "Lettering Help". The experienced lettering members of this forum will be glad to help you.

Stephen Rapp

I agree with Andreas. People in lettering tend to come from a lot of different angles to lettering. Folks like John Downer and Charles Borges de Oliveira, for example, came from a sign painting background and signs of this are in their work. Myself, Michael Clark, and others came from the calligraphy tradition and this shows in our work. Some folks have always drawn lettering and their sensitivity to letter forms varies greatly. Folks like Doyald Young (RIP) and Jessica Hische have a knack for very well drawn letters. Some folks with less technical skills at lettering per se have a very fun and illustrative styles. Nate Williams comes to mind in that realm.

You might start by scouring sites like welovetypography or flickr for people who's style you admire. And, of course, feel free to post samples for critique.

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