The Art of Lettering

I've been following a lot of design blogs lately and I’ve been trying to think of a way to somehow categorize them all as one topic. If they had anything in common, I would say there seems to be a trend of people going back to the “old way” of doing things, so that’s how I will justify posting all of this cool stuff. First off, these charming, completely hand-painted signs. 

The spacing, embellishments and brushwork are all carefully executed. An excerpt from the book Sign Painters says “Its not science, but it’s beautiful and all artists recognize this”. 

In an era of Photoshop and Illustrator, a handful of these dedicated artists still exist because they believe what they do represents quality and craftsmanship. There’s actually a documentary following these artistians and you can see the trailer here. The book is also available on amazon for a pretty decent price. Below is an example of some of the brushes the painters use. 

This was a recent project done by BMD design that I felt was sort of in the same vein, at least it has the same spirit as the hand-crafted sign paintings. This studio specializes in hand-done lettering and I think their work is beautiful.

They seem to use traditional methods just like those of the sign painters, I love that you can see the water-color like brush strokes. You can see more of their work on their website, unfortunately none of it is in English, but still amazing work none-the-less.

This next project is by graphic designer Carl Relate, who designed a type face based on lettering that he had been studying in the 19^th and 20^th century (much like the sign painters). The typeface first evolved from some lettering he did for a poster . He believes it captures the mood and has a distinctive personality. I believe all of these examples have that distinctive personality that he is talking about, which I suppose is why I’m so drawn to them. You can see more of Carl’s work here. 

I know this next piece doesn't really fit  as its not hand-done – but if you haven't seen it yet I felt that you should. This is sort of a vintage piece done using a more modern method, capturing sony music industry type throughout the decades.

See the full project here.

And finally, the very last thing I’ll post is letter-playground. I thought this was a sort of fun site which features hand-done letters created by artists and designers, whether they are amateur or professional. Anyone can create their own letter and submit it to the site, and there’s a great little collection on there. I figured it would be something fun to pay attention or take part in when you want to design on summer break. 

And if you aren't following this blog, its a great resource! This is where I've found most of the above projects.