Hand Lettering is making a huge comeback. It’s replacing the cold, digital world of type that many of us are used to. It’s an unapologetically imperfect art form that is currently taking over the graphic design world. Logos, packaging, book covers and advertisements are benefiting from whimsical charm of hand lettering.

Lets talk about the history of hand lettering. I’m not going to go too far back; we don’t have to talk about ancient scribes from the middle ages and the art of calligraphy. That’s a separate lesson for another day. The “history” I’m talking about is relatively modern, exceptionally impressive, and was very close to being a lost art. I’m talking about sign painting.

SIGN PAINTERS (OFFICIAL TRAILER) from samuel j macon on Vimeo.

Sign painting became popular after Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. The increase in literacy rates lead to an increase in signage. Itinerant artists traveled across Europe painting signs for pubs and taverns.

Sign painting was affected by capitalist industrialism in Europe and North America, and by the 19^th and 20^th century it was everywhere: big, bold and bright. People started integrating it directly onto buildings themselves. Sign paintings transformed cityscapes into typographical canvases, and I can’t help but imagine it must have looked magical. 

This art form was nearly abandoned with the invention of vinyl signs created on computers and cut by plotters.  Computer software programs can generate pixel perfect signage in a fraction of time that was required of even the most skilled artists. This has significantly reduced the cost of signage and largely reduced the need for sign painters.

Thankfully, in the 60s, there was a sudden surge in the general public’s interest in type. From the psychedelically misshapen letters of the 60s and 70s to the ripped and cut grunge letters of the 80s, by the 90s people were seeing type as more than just letters. They were seeing individual characters for what they were- tiny illustrations, each with their own unique style and personality that could only be properly captured by the hand of a person, not by the pixels of a computer.  And thus, hand lettering began its long and powerful comeback.

After two decades of growing popularity, hand lettering has positively taken over my life and yours, whether you realize it or not. PrintMag summed it up nicely when they said “The beauty of hand lettering is its flexibility and adaptability. It can be found in so many forms and so many different types of media that it appeals to almost every audience. From whimsical to elegant, and old school to new school—there is hand lettering inspiration out there for everyone.”

Here are some of the people who make hand lettering great:

Theres the people who we all know..

Mary Kate McDevott

Louise Fili

And then theres the lesser known but still incredible hand letterers who have influenced me.

rylsee

Annica Lydenberg

But lets bring this full circle. Sign painters didn’t just pave the way for hand lettering graphic designers. They also paved the way for modern sign painters, muralists, graffiti artists, street artists, or whatever else you want to call them. This takes shape beautifully in the mural arts program's A Love Letter For You

Here’s a quick blurb from mural arts’ website:

One of the most (if not the most) popular projects in our history is Steve Powers' A Love Letter For You. Composed of a series of 50 rooftop murals from 45^th to 63^rd Streets along the Market Street corridor, the murals collectively express a love letter from a guy to a girl, from an artist to his hometown, and from local residents to their neighborhood of West Philadelphia. The murals are best viewed from the Market/Frankford El.

Powers, a West Philadelphia native now based in New York, is a former graffiti writer who became an established studio artist, illustrator, and Fulbright scholar. In Powers’ own words, Love Letter is “a letter for one, with meaning for all” and speaks to all residents who have loved and for those who long for a way to express that love to the world around them. He considers the project “my chance to put something on these rooftops that people would care about”

Signs of Hope

When you see a homeless person on the street what's one of the first things you notice? They more than likely have some sort of handwritten sign on a damp and ripped piece of cardboard. Some people hurriedly shove their phones in front of their faces as they walk by and others divert their attention to any other object in their field of vision besides that person's sign.

These signs have become so familiar and universally used that they tend to blend in. I don't even really notice or give them a second thought anymore as to why or how they came about choosing to show their message in that way. These people usually don't speak and instead let the sign speak for them. The following 2 projects, although almost opposites, both use the concept of the homeless person sign to expand its impact and have it actually serve the purpose those who write them want them to.

The first is:

HOMELESSFONTS.ORG

homelessfonts.org

This is, as their website states, an Arrels Foundation Initiative which consists of taking the handwriting of the homeless and making them into fonts for sale. People and brands can then use these fonts in an effort to raise money for the 1,400 people supported by the Arrels Foundation.

As you can see, each typeface is expressive and unique to that individual who wrote it. No matter where they've been in life or what their struggles are, their handwriting is unique and beautiful. Their messages and needs might be similar in content, but the hand that writes each sign is unique.

The second is a tumblr page called:

SIGNS FOR THE HOMELESS

homelesssigns.tumblr.com

This website takes the exact opposite approach but still has the common goal of helping out the homeless who's signs aren't always effective. It is run by artist Kenya Nakayama and Christopher Hope. They also want to make these people more than just another face holding a sign. They interview them as well as give them a fully redone traditional typographically beautiful sign. 

Although they make the signs fit into what is more eye catching and considered beautiful, they keep the messages exactly the same, and yet design changes them drastically. 

So what is actually a better method? Using a persons own personal handwriting to bring positive change or taking their message and presenting it in a more visually pleasing way? On one hand, homelessfonts uses that own persons talents to project their struggles and get them help from a larger more powerful audience while signs for the homeless does make their sign more beautiful, but ultimately ask the same people who walk by and ignore the ugly signs to reconsider the message simply because its more visually pleasing. Regardless, I think design lends itself to do so much good and this is just one aspect in which it does so. 

Typography through Screen Printing

This semester I chose to take a screen printing class, and it turns out to be one of the best classes I've taken thus far. It's such a nice change of pace from all the computer work I've been doing every day, and it shows so much more of the process behind making and using type further than what I've experienced on the computer.

 With screen printing, you can still do most, if not all of what you can do on the computer, but it can be done with a much more tactile quality than your Mac will give you (no offense). When you print a physical print, the colors blend so perfectly, and you can see the actual process taking place before your eyes. If you mess up, you see it. No going back, unless you want to start over. No Cmd+Z.

 One of the best things about using type in the screen printing process is that you can layer, add opacities, dot screens, and so much more to make it a unique piece of art. Type can be informative, as in a poster, or simply decorative as in the first image above. The possibilities are endless.

Type is Elementary

Scrolling along my Tumblr feed, I came across a type/illustration project by Anna Kövecses that is meant to be an educational book for children to learn the alphabet. She uses a combination of simple, bold illustrations with modern typefaces to create beautiful layouts while still allowing for an easy read for kids. 

Daily Type Challenges

As I browse through my tumblr dashboard or my Pinterest homescreen, I see more and more daily design challenges, especially relating to typography. It seems that in the midst of their other projects, designers and artists are taking some time to explore their passion with something a little more lighthearted and experimental.

I came across this design tumblr by Sabrina Smelko in which she illustrates the day of the year a different way every day. I like the variations of color and shape of the numbers she uses, and also the different materials she uses to get the effect of each piece.