The Art of Whimsical Lettering (8 page)

Making Signature Alphabets

Have you noticed that no one writes anymore? I find nothing more beautiful than putting pen to paper, especially with the freedom to make letters and alphabets however I choose.

Hand lettering restores the human element, creating a social connection that no technology can match. Think about our history that was so dependent on handwritten letters describing life in past eras. Ink on paper, life shared. We wouldn’t know much about the past if it weren’t for handwritten accounts in letters, ledgers, and journals of days gone by.

In my life and art, I’ve always been fascinated by the history and evolution of letterforms. These discoveries inspire me to explore new ways of making freehand letters by moving a pen, marker, or brush and implementing traditional characteristics in my contemporary alphabets. Adding interesting lines or vintage decorative elements to alphabets makes a dramatic impression for a quote, thought, or message.

I used a paintbrush like a pen to loosely letter an entire alphabet in luscious watercolors, then added decorative pen doodles and flooded the negative space with more rich color.

As we explore the ideas in creating original art alphabets, know that this chapter is not about making the cutesy stuff. You know, the letters that look like bananas, balloons, and cupcakes, with hearts that dot the letter i. It’s about inventing letters for a whole alphabet as a collection with common elements such as line, shape, pattern, and decoration tying them together.

To make magical alphabets, you must fall in love with your own handwriting. Don’t be overly critical of your regular writing, because it’s the essential ingredient for this process. If you’re not crazy about it, change how you think, knowing that it’s just the foundation for letter making as artwork. In my teaching experience, I constantly hear so many people say, “I hate my writing” with the same conviction as they say, “I hate my nose,” or any other personal physical characteristic. I’m pretty sure that transforming your handwriting into a personal art expression is a lot less painful than a nose job!

This is a canvas sampler I created to showcase many different alphabet styles.

Be free, let it flow, and make it up as you go. Think past the ABCs you learned in elementary school and be adventurous with loose lines and inventive letter shapes. Dare to be perfectly imperfect in discovering your inner font. You know the basics that you’ve used your entire life, now turn your letters into art by adding, drawing, changing, and inventing elements of basic letters. Do you see how the possibilities are infinite? The more alphabets you invent, the more your signature style will evolve.

Ingredients for Creating an Artistic Alphabet

There are specific ideas that I incorporate into my own hand-drawn alphabets.

Start with your own personal handwriting as the foundation for a new alphabet.

Try new pens, markers, and brushes to transform your ordinary writing and give it a fresh look and unexpected style.

Make sure every letter has a consistent element that unifies it as a member of a collection, such as an inventive line formation or embellishment.

Give the alphabet a name or title.

Just like the lined paper you used when you were first learning to write, a grid helps keep your letters in line.

Mother Knows Best

This would not be a true lettering book without celebrating my own mother’s handwriting. Growing up in the shadows of her writing style was a huge inspiration in my love of lettering. It’s very rare today to see such perfect letterforms. Educated in Catholic schools in the 1940s, Mom learned handwriting with the strict rules and disciplined teaching style of her era. Penmanship was a daily classroom activity, and students strove for perfection with the highest standards. Mom remembers vividly that J was her favorite letter to write and can recall the emotion attached to forming the letter. My birthday cards are always graced with the most perfect letter “J”!

You Are What You Letter

I have always loved words, art, and talking, and hand lettering has been one of my passions my entire life. My artwork always “speaks” with a colorful illustration and a personally designed alphabet or font appropriate for the message.

My personal “lettering notoriety” started in high school with my campaign for junior class president. Handmade, colorful flyers and posters with bold marker letters and posters saturated the hallways and cafeteria of Our Lady of Mercy High School. My slogan was “Go Wacky, Vote Zawacki.” (With a maiden name like Zawacki, what else could I do?) I won the office that year and senior class president the next year. For the past thirty years I’ve received notes or messages from my former classmates who see my artwork all over the world and say, “I knew it was your writing!” My handwriting paired with whimsical artwork has always identified who I am as an artist and human being. It is artwork that reflects my values and my personality and exposes the depths of who I am as an artist. My lettering is my art.

Just a few samples of my early lettering efforts.

Alpha Art in Action

These fifteen hand-lettered, stylized alphabets originated from my own print or cursive writing. Try the techniques I describe to create your own personalized alphabets, rather than simply copying mine. You’ll recognize some of my basic artful lettering techniques from the last chapter and see entire alphabets created with those ideas.

Thick It

Transform your personal printing style by adding weight to each letter. Use both thick and thin lines to create new letterforms.

Pencil Perfect

Write an alphabet in pencil and then trace around each shape in marker to invent a new letter shape. Erase the pencil lines to reveal a new one-of-a-kind font.

Extreme Cursive

Stretch your handwriting and experiment with extreme slants and loopy versions of your personal cursive writing.

The Lettering Equation

Once you’re in the whimsical lettering groove, you’ll realize that the possibilities for creating lettering styles are endless. I have developed a system called the “Lettering Equation” to experiment and design different patterns of letters to create unique word art. I’m sure there is an actual mathematical formula that will determine how many ways you can write a single word, but that’s all about numbers, and I’m all about the letters.

The Lettering Equation breaks letters down into four variables: uppercase, lower case, print, and cursive. By creating formulas that mix up these variables, you can instantly create artful word design, with, you guessed it, your own handwriting!

The Variables

Uppercase (U)

Lower Case (L)

Print (P)

Cursive (C)

Creative Combinations

Make patterns for letter placement in words. For example the word “art” can be drawn many ways depending on which variables you place in a sequence.

A r T = UP LP UP

A R T = UP UP UP

a R t = LP UP LP

When you throw in cursive and printed letters, the options become endless.