Bettering Lettering
July 21, 2010
Scott Hull Associates artists share how an infinite variety of feelings can come out of 26 measly characters.
I love typography work because it can allow me to play a little more than my editorial-style illustration. I get to think about what the words mean, the emotion that it needs to portray, and go from there – trying different things until the perfect idea emerges.
-Penelope Dullaghan
Drawing your own type steps your work up a whole other notch. It puts you in complete control of the vibe that your type gives off. You are free to take it wherever you want and you don’t have to rely on the same toolbox that every other designer uses.
-Tim Gough
Type has always been my passion. When I was a senior in high school, I used to steal my older sister’s type specimen catalogs (she was a graphic design student) and use it to draw posters mimicking the endless styles of type. Our local Kroger store even had me painting their front windows and mirrors in the meat department with ad specials and holiday messages. When I went to college, I was introduced to the craft of typesetting and ligature design, so when I graduated as a designer, I treated type in a more formal, classic Bauhaus style.
-Lisa Ballard
What the illustrative lettering artist brings to the table is the recognition of type as art. Once upon a time, all letterforms were created by people who could draw. So rather than assembling and contorting computer generated fonts, as the modern designer does, we approach the lettering design with type’s history in our DNA and the drawing ability to create a unique piece of lettering art.
-Mark Riedy
Have always had a love of typography and hand lettering. Love work from the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s
where display fonts and headlines were hand lettered. Michael Doret was a huge influence on me when
I was studying to be a designer. His sketches and preliminary drawings are as amazing as the final artwork.
-Tim Frame
My love of letterforms stems from being fascinated by the balance between a uniquely imaginative, while at the same time purely pragmatic, form of art. Lettering is at once historic, utilitarian and elegant, full of power that exceeds what the majority of people are aware of on a conscious level.
Lettering has been the byproduct of human hands for over 5,000 years. It is only in the last 60 years or so that the living letter has been almost totally exchanged for its fossilized form of type. While type is an exceedingly important branch of letterforms it is still only one aspect of a vast art.
I love working with living letterforms. They are alive with the energy of human touch, full of distinctive personality. These infinitely flexible 26 spirits literally have the power to heal or corrupt. What a magnificent art!