What can lettering do that type design can’t? And where does the work of fonts out-of-the-box stop and lettering begin when it comes to conveying a message with expression? In this course, we are not teaching traditional lettering from scratch. Although that is an extremely important skill to learn, we believe there is a lot to be gained from working with type first, especially as a newcomer to lettering. If you are working from a good-quality typeface, the proportions and spacing are done for you and can be leveraged on and customized for a particular need. It’s the quickest way to go from nothing to something pretty great.

Skills we are going to be covering:

• Sketching
• Iterating on ideas
• Composition
• Hierarchy
• Tracing
• Using Color

Skills we are not going to be covering:

• How to use Adobe Illustrator
• How to use Procreate on the iPad
• Traditional lettering techniques

A few great resources for building your traditional lettering skills:

1. The Lettering Manual by Ken Barber
2. Lettering Design by Michael Harvey
3. Letter Design in the Graphic Arts by Mortimer Leach

P.S. Dangerous Curves is actually by Doyald Young (little mistake in the video there!). That is a great book that is very hard to find!