Do you ever scroll through images of beautiful lettering on Instagram and think to yourself, “Wow, I wish I could do that!â€â€¦but don’t know how to get started?
Lauren Hom – The Art of Lovely and Legible Lettering
Maybe you adore lettering and have been practicing for a while, but your work isn’t where you want it to be? Even though you’ve been improving slowly on your own, you still don’t feel confident about your letterforms and layouts. Something always looks off or feels like it’s missing, and it frustrates you that you can never quite figure out why. How the heck do all of your favorite artists make their work look so perfect, polished, and most importantly…effortless?
Or perhaps you’re working as a professional designer but haven’t been feeling very inspired by the work you’re doing at your job? It pays the bills, but you’re in desperate need of creative fulfillment outside of the office. You loved the typography classes you took in college, and lately, you find yourself lettering on your notes to pass time in long meetings (that definitely could’ve been emails).
Maybe you’ve already started building an online following around your lettering work and perhaps even picked up a few freelance jobs? You LOVED the feeling of getting hired for lettering and want to work on more. You’ve seen other lettering artists working on cool campaigns with big brands, but you don’t know how to give your lettering that professional polish that seems to attract those dream projects.
Bottom line?
You’ve admired hand lettering for a while and dream of getting really good at it one day.
You want to be able to fully understand letters, composition, and spacing so you can stop making the same mistakes that you know are holding your lettering back.
You’re ready to *finally* feel confident in your lettering abilities, feel motivated to practice (because it can be so frustrating to keep going when you’re not seeing any improvements), and make work that you’re proud to share online.
If you found yourself nodding along to any of those bits, you’re definitely not alone.
Back in 2012 before I started lettering, I used to look at other lettering work and think to myself, “HOW?! I need to learn how to do that.†but didn’t have any friends who were lettering yet and felt unsure of where to start. Then one day, I decided to just go ahead and give it a shot with the basic tools I had in my dorm room (a pencil, a Sharpie, and graph paper), and I’ve been lettering ever since.
In the beginning, most of my lettering decisions were just me….taking my best guess? I looked at SO much lettering online and knew what I liked, but whenever I sat down to try and do it myself, something would always look wrong. But I could never quite figure out why! (Psst…If you don’t understand the source of the problem, it’s kinda hard to figure out how to fix it.)
Nevertheless, I loved lettering and continued to do it constantly and awkwardly, but I was never confident that any of the design choices I was making were correct. But as I practiced, I learned by trial and error, and things slowly started getting better.
Course Curriculum
Introduction
Hello + Class Overview (1:47)
What You’ll Need – Supplies & Materials (2:51)
Finding Lettering Inspiration (2:11)
Class Workbook
Pencil and Paper Users: Download & Print the Workbook
iPad/Tablet Users: Download the Workbook
Type Basics + Warm Up Exercises
Type Terminology (2:25)
Becoming a Lettering Detective (1:48)
Exercise – Sans Serif (11:49)
Exercise – Serif (9:28)
Exercise – Slab Serif (14:25)
Exercise – Script (7:17)
Before You Begin – Pro Tips and Common Mistakes
Thicks, Thins and Tricky Letters (12:06)
A Little Space is Healthy (1:12)
Decorating Without Distracting (1:11)
Oh Shoot, Overshoot! (2:02)
Crafting Your Letters From Scratch
Setting Up Guidelines for Basic Letters (8:14)
Italicized Letters (3:38)
Letter Spacing (6:54)
Script Letters (9:56)
Lettering with Playful Guidelines (9:15)
Embellishing Your Letters
Swashes (5:05)
Shadows (5:02)
Flourishes (2:16)
Composition – Putting it All Together
Planning Your Visual Hierarchy (2:34)
Thumbnail Sketches (4:54)
Laying Out Your Final Sketch (13:40)
Refining Your Sketch (11:13)
Adding Shadows to Your Sketch (3:57)
Final Adjustments and Embellishments (4:27)
Inking Your Final Artwork (8:50)
Digitizing Your Lettering
Getting Your Artwork into the Computer (1:46)
Basic Photoshop – Preparing Your Lettering for Editing (9:56)
Basic Photoshop – Refining Your Lettering (10:56)
Basic Photoshop – Adding Color to Your Lettering (7:03)
Option to Upgrade to Lettering Feedback From Me
Click here to learn how to get feedback on your work
Bonus Videos!
Bonus Critique – These Heels Don’t Hurt (19:37)
Bonus Critique – I’m Almost Ready (18:53)
Bonus Critique – You’re a Cream Come True (29:34)
