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owadays we rarely pick up a pen and

paper to communicate with

one another. However, it mightis not wise for us to trade

this long- standi ng, cultural

practice of writing letters

entirely for the convenience

of text/instant messages and

e-mails.

Research has shown that

the general act of writing by

hand can promote quite a few

physical and mental benefts,

from improving learning

abilities to fostering a more

positive outlook on life.

When it comes to writing

that is used as a form of

communication between two

people, namely letters and

postcards, the impact of such

messages lasts far longer

than any alternative version

offered in the technologically

advanced world we live in.

No true match exists for

this old-time, traditional

means of conversation.

Long after they are written,

crafted and sent

(and even after their

senders and their

receivers are gone), letters

and postcards remain to be

read, to be appreciated and

to be preserved.

Whet her displayed on

museum shelves honoring

famous historical figures

or saved in a scrapbook

between two old fr ie nds,

letters protect thememories of lives lived in

a way that technological

communication will never

be able to match up to .

They are tangible, pers onal and real , inevery sense of the word.



Hand lettering is one of

Megan from Make Wellsmost favourite things to do.

One way to think of

the dierence between

calligraphy and lettering is

that calligraphy is based

on penmanship, or writing

letters, while lettering is

based on the draftsmanship,

or drawing them.

So to improve your letteringskills, essentially you arelooking to improve your

drawing skills.

Not only can each letter be

drawn inan infinite amount

of ways, but the conbination

of the letters to form words,

and words to form phrases,

opens up an entire world ofcreative interpretation that

could very possibly go on

forever and ever.



Getting started with hand

lettering is easy (and cheap!).

All you need is some of your

basic s upplies:

And none of these materials

need to be fancy. Most of

her sketches are done with

a mechanical pencil in her

sketchbook or on copy paper.

When getting started in

lettering, it’s important to get

to know a few basic types ofletter styles. Highlighted are

the three of these above: serif,

sans serif and script type.

And that is what Megan loves

about handlettering: there are

endless of other possibilities.

It sounds like a lot of work,

but each time you pick up

your pencil to draw letters,

you are indeed getting very

valuable practice drawing eachletter and alre also stretching

your creativity to fnd very

innovative ways to interpret

each letter.

Megan has pages and pages

in her sketchbooks dedicated

to letterring - which serves

just as much as practice in the

moment, and also as a source

of inspiration for future work.

You can choose to start with

any alphabet you’d like.

One way to discover the many

variations of single letters is by

utilizing tracing paper. Draw

the main body of your letter on

white paper. Then, using the

tracing paper, trace that same

letter, varying a small details.

Have fun practicing - you will be surprised

how easy it is to comeup with 100 variations!

If you do complete the exercise,

post your photos on Instagram

so we can see and be inspired.

Can’t wait to see what everyone

comes up with on Instagram!





What made you choose todraw your type by hand?

When you are hand drawing

type, do you think aboutsketching the word itself, or

articulating the letters?

When drawing a word, is thecontext always important, ordo you look at how it looks?

How important to you is the

interplay of text and image?

Do you think fonts look betterif they were all hand drawn?

Why do you think there ismore hand lettering in

design outcomes today?

Photo + Illustration by Nate Williams

Text by Sonali Vora + Victoria Whincup

Layout by Ruzana Abdul Rahim

Nate Williams who is also knownas Alexander Blue is an artist,

illustrator and designer.

His illustrations have a unique

whimsical style, lled with vibrantcolors, imagery which combineshand drawn type and doodles.

Nate, please introduce your-self, give us your bio. Did you

have any formal training in thiseld or are you self-taught?



Creating faux calligraphy

is so great for beginnerswho are quite intimidated

by a traditional-lookingdip pen and also great for

seasoned calligrapherswho want to write on

other irregular surfaces.

Faux calligraphy canbe applied on surfaces

which would otherwise

spoil your pen nibs.

“Faux calligraphy” is

achieving the gorgeous

thick and thin cursive

style without using atraditional dip pen.

To create faux ‘cheating’calligraphy, write out your

phrase in simple cursive.

No worries if you aren’t

writing like the sample

above— just use the bestcursive you can! All you

need to know is that histechnique works with any

letters that are connected.

After you have written

using your very simplecursive, you’ll need to do

is to draw lines to denote

the downstrokes that will

create the little spacesfor you to ll in. Parts of

the letters where your

pen is moving upward,

you leave untouched.What are downstrokes?

Essentially, downstrokesare the parts of the letter

that you drag your pen

down to make.

A downstroke occurs

when your hand moves

downward to create part

of a letter. With the “a”,for example, that rst

curve down on the left is

a downstroke, then you

swoop up to the right,and down again for the

right leg of the “a”.

Once you’ve gone over

your letters again with

those lines, all you have

to do is ll them in!

Doesn’t it look so fancy?

You can transform your

very own handwriting tomake it look like modern

calligraphy simply andeasily with just a few

extra pen strokes.

Documents

penpalparty_pages.pdf