Typeforms and Lettering

‘Papercut letter collage 02’ by Grant

There’s gaps in my letters and lines,
And space in my poems for rhymes.
But for shapes held in books
That give them such looks
Credit Gill Sans or New Roman Times.

From my Dad I got my love of letterforms and structure.

From my Mum, the bubbles of opera.

From Mother Nature my love of food and understanding of things good.

From by friends, the torches of care which continually keep me aware of what life’s about.

From the media, mere unsettled dust, and its familiar pattern of drizzle, growth and rust.

Words of Wisdom image print by ttp. tim tiley prints. bristol bs6 5rr. photo 000365-a by kind permission of the *WoW prints collection/hand-lettering

 

 

 

 

 

“Lyrics can make me cry.
Music can kidnap my body.
True Art can always swallow time
I thought was mine.”

One time,  Goldie , English musician, DJ, visual artist and actor, designed this lettering for me, for a tagged wall by the Birmingham SuperPrix pitstop. The rest is his story.

Photo by kind permission of *WoW prints collection/petite moulin rouge night club/Birmingham.uk [Interior and Feature Design by Grant]

 

 

 

 

Castles in the sky.
Community dreams of
Picnics on high.

Brush strokes in ink,
Fluid, where carved stone
Rests to think.

Two prized items in the *WoW Collections are the following examples;

 

The first penned in ink and given to Will O’Leary on the occassion of the 2006 New Year celebration from Nipponzan Myohoji and the second, [picture presently on loan] incised by carving with a chisel over lettering first ‘painted’ with a flat brush during one of O’Leary’s carving workshops.

Photos by kind permission of *WoW print and lettering collections which includes a library of graphic lettering and prints by calligrapher, Linda Lewis.

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William Caxton, The first English Editor by Richard Deacon. Pub. Frederick Muller Ltd. London. 1976.
J.H.Mason 1875 – 1951 Scholar-Printer by L.T.Owens. Pub. Frederick Muller Ltd. London. 1976.
John Baskerville of Birmingham. Letter-Founder and Printer by F.E.Pardoe. Pub. Frederick Muller Ltd. London. 1974.

 

 

 

 

Stanley Morison Displayed by Herbert Jones. Pub. Frederick Muller Ltd. London. 1976.
A Handbook of Textbook Type and Illustration by John Lewis. Pub. Faber and Faber. London. 1956
Pen Lettering. Pub. James Dorn. London
An atlas of typeforms by James Sutton and Alan Bartram. Pub. Lund Humphries. London. 1968
Specimens of Printing Types from Stevenson Blake, The Caslon Letter Foundry, Sheffield.
Stevenson Blake Card Founts of Printing Type
Creative Lettering and Calligraphy by Peter Halliday
John M. Clark’s Alphabets for sign writers, decorators, designers. London. 1906
The Kenyon Lettering – a collection of original letterforms, both printed and hand illustrated, published in books, advertisements, exhibitions and as art.

*The WoW collections are curated by World of Water [Reg. UK educational charity ] as part of their outreach project. Enquiries and donations welcome.]

‘Papercut letter collage 01’ by Grant

The A to P of Illustrated Lettering

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Connect with the power of #Lettering  #Design handcrafted by Grant for your next project.

Gallery of examples thehobb.tv/000325 includes:
Illuminated lettering
Type design
Illustrated lettering
Titles for articles, posters, point-of-sale and book covers
Picture book typesetting
Lettering in logoforms
and …
typography

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To launch a unique project, the best way of avoiding copyright issues of existing fonts is to get your lettering designed and not have the full A to Z of costs.

“I remember getting a call from the architects of Cadbury World long before it had been designed. They needed a picture for their press release – an ‘artist’s impression’ of the themed visitor centre along with title lettering. That was my first journey into chocolate lettering design. Delicious!”

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Book covers benefit from a strong lettering design. Make sure the lettering on your book cover works when displayed as a thumbnail image online as well as in shop point-of-sale displays.

Illus

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Freehand illustrated lettering (above) works best on posters promoting hand crafted work, organically grown produce or private parties. Alongside these more friendly looking promotions, the typical look produced by computer graphic layout software  looks cold and uninviting.

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Grant enjoys lettering.  Come and share his enjoyment and bring along your own lettering, especially if you have just baked a cake with iced lettering on it.

“The first Halloween cake I made had five sponge layers with strawberry and greengage jam. The victoria icing was coloured as black as I could and very thin white icing was piped all over it and onto its baseboard looking like a forgotten mass of cobwebs. The lettering read, ‘To Wayne and Peter’ – our special spooky guests.”

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Illustrated lettering works for:

POSIDprintpaperLBrNews

 

 

And here is a special .pdf publication I have put together for Evelyn, who has recently designed some delightfully curly letterforms. Remember, every line, every twirl, every squiggle and every curl can be cultured with practice to create a ‘pearl’.