What is hand lettering?
Hand lettering, calligraphy and typography are words that have similar, but not the same meaning. Below is how I define what I do, and how hand lettering is different from calligraphy and typography.
What is hand lettering?
A simple reply would be: “it’s lettering that is drawn by hand” and that’s pretty accurate already! When I hand letter a word or phrase, I draw the letters in a style that fits the occasion. That can be whimsical for a children’s book, retro for a hipster coffee bar logo, grungy for a skateboard decoration and so on. The variety in style make it suitable for just about every situation or product.
Because it is drawn, and not written, hand lettering is often more closely related to illustration than it is to great penmanship. This element of illustration allows you to create letters, letter combinations and letter connections that are specific to that one word or phrase. It is a one-off that design and the letters are not drawn to be used over and over again in other pieces.
I often start literally with pen on paper, but other hand letterers also use a wide variety of materials, including digital drawing tools such as a drawing pad or tablet with a stylus (a good reason to buy that iPad Pro :-). Hand lettering is often digitized and converted to a vector illustration so it can be scaled and printed on all kinds of materials.
How is it different from calligraphy?
Whereas hand lettering is about drawing letters, calligraphy is about writing letters. It’s writing letters in a very pretty and elegant style, using specific writing instruments such as a pen and brushes that creates the think (down strokes) and thin (up strokes) contrast in the letters.
Calligraphy is all about penmanship and is mostly done in the luxurious style you see on wedding invites, fancy restaurant menus and perfume packaging. Although there are plenty of style varieties, letters are usually drawn in a quite consistent manner.
It can be scanned and used in layouts, but is often not converted to a vector format.
How is it different from typography?
Lastly, typography is not so much about creating letters, but it’s about using letters that someone else created. In most cases that would be a digital font file for use on your computer, but it equally applies to old fashioned metal or wood type used in a print shop
This comes in a variety of styles as well, including (to make things confusing!) typefaces that looks like they are handmade. The give-away is often that the letters look too much alike to be custom design.
Typefaces often contain a set of prebuilt letter combinations (called ligatures) but these options are not as extensive as you would get with a custom design. The whole aim of typography is consistent (re)use of a set of letters, not any one-off design.
In summary
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This blog post is the first in a series that discuss what hand lettering is, and why it matters.